AUBURN — If you’ve attended St. Peter’s, St. Joseph’s, Holy Cross, Holy Family, St. Patrick’s, St. Mary’s, St. Louis, Sacred Heart, St. Bernadette, Ave Maria Academy, Cours Superieurs, Our Lady of the Rosary or Trinity Catholic school, this celebration is for you.

On Aug. 13-14 Saint Dominic Academy is hosting a Catholic school reunion for anyone who attended an area Catholic elementary school. It’s how Saint Dominic Academy is celebrating its 75th year.

“It’s a reunion of all our Catholic schools,” said Donald Fournier, president of Saint Dominic Academy. “What better way to celebrate 75 years of St. Dom’s than getting the former students of the schools together. Those schools are now one in St. Dominic Academy. Now, St. Dom’s is their school.”

Through the years as Catholic enrollment fell, parochial schools were closed and merged.

The last Lewiston-Auburn Catholic school is Saint Dominic Academy, which has two campuses; one for grades pre-K-6 in Lewiston, a second for grades 7-12 in Auburn.

St. Dom’s was founded by parish priest Herve Drouin in 1941. In the 1940s there were a lot of Catholic grammar schools, but no Catholic high school.

Drouin is remembered as a visionary, someone who promoted aspirations, who wanted a better education for French-speaking students than public schools then provided.

It was a time when there was little, if any, support for French-speaking students in public schools and they were often teased and ridiculed.

“French kids didn’t fit in,” said Bill Ledoux, 71. At St. Dom’s, students were taught “we were just as good as everybody else,” Ledoux said. “They taught us to have pride in who we were.”

Students remember Drouin as someone who knew the families, a pastor, who before report cards went home, showed up and personally passed out cards in classes.

Ledoux attended elementary school at St. Bernadette’s in Lisbon. His parents didn’t finish high school. When it was time for high school, he lived with his French-speaking grandparents in Lewiston.

Students were taught by brothers who were big on discipline, Ledoux said.

He was shy, but a sharp student, he said. At St. Dom’s his confidence grew. “They helped me believe I could make it in the world. I could go out there.”

He attended Catholic University in Washington, where he challenged a math professor over a B grade. After taking an exam, the professor told him, “’You got your A,’” Ledoux said.

After graduating from college, Ledoux returned to Lewiston and became vice president of operations for Diamond Phoenix Systems before retiring.

“I follow the school.” His three children went to St. Dom’s. “My daughter, Jacqueline Ouellette, teaches there.”

In the school library last week, a team of volunteers, Rachel D’Auteuil, 72, Diane Bonneau, Monique Gendron and Roland Bergeron, sorted through old photos for the Aug. 13 reunion.

All of D’Auteuil’s five siblings attended Catholic schools.

Her six children attended St. Dom’s. Her youngest, Dennis D’Auteuil, is the acting city manager in Auburn.

To get them to school, it meant three trips a day, she said. “I would drive them every day. That’s how important it was to us.”

In September her five grandchildren will be enrolled at St. Dom’s.

“I’m very happy that they’re here. I really am,” she said. “I volunteer. I see what’s going on.”

Fournier said he hopes former Catholic students attend and realize “they are part of a large network of people out there, making a difference. We’ve done so much with so many people. We want to celebrate that.”

Catholic schools reunion lineup

A reunion for anyone who attended area Catholic schools will be held Aug. 13-14 at Saint Dominic Academy on Gracelawn Road in Auburn.

On Aug. 13 from 2 to 4 p.m., 11 classrooms will be open, each room dedicated to a different Catholic school. There’ll be an opportunity to socialize and look over photos, artifacts and watch a slideshow.

That will be followed by a one-hour program in the gym honoring Catholic teachers. A reception is planned from from 5:30-7 p.m.

On Aug. 14, a mass will be held at noon at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston.