About
PEMDAS - THE ORDER OF OPERATIONS - for WED., NOV. 4:
4:54 P.M. (APPROXIMATE SUNSET) UNTIL 6:54 P.M.: A PRE-EVENT OPEN-HOUSE-STYLE SPECIAL EVENT WITH A DELICIOUSLY CREATIVE TAKE-YOU-BACK-IN-TIME TASTING MENU CREATED AND SERVED BY THE REFINERY AND FREE CUSTOM-CRAFTED “SCHOOL SPIRITS” COCKTAILS.
OUR “FACULTY LOUNGE” WILL BE OPEN FOR A RE-MEET AND RE-GREET RECEPTION WITH A LINEUP OF LEGENDS FROM OUR CLASSROOMS, FRONT OFFICES, RECTORIES, AND CONVENTS.
SADLY, WE MUST LIMIT ATTENDANCE FOR THIS PART OF OUR EVENING, BUT YOU CAN SCORE AN INVITE AND A COUPON CODE IF YOU ACT FAST. See all the exciting details in the box at right. We are THRILLED to partner with The Refinery for this one. And we avow: The hottest chefs in Pittston are going TO BRING IT with elevated cafeteria food like nothing you’ve ever seen on a divided tray before. The house cocktails are sure to trigger a memory or two, too.
7 P.M.: OUR MAIN EVENT SING-IT-OVER WITH CATHOLIC YOUTUBER CHRIS BRUNELLE WILL BEGIN, AND “ALL ARE WELCOME.” (You know THAT one, right?) Doors for the main event will open at 6:30 p.m. Please use the entrance off the parking lot behind the building and join us in the lobby until the main hall opens. You can help yourself to some free refreshments while you also enjoy our vintage photo booth, browse our Catholic schools “mini museum,” and claim your piece of Catholic schools swag if you engaged with us on the DoS Catholic Schools Facebook page - either by answering a pre-event #WaybackWednesday question correctly or posting an old photo of you, your classmates or your favorite Catholic-school artifact. (If you don’t already follow us on Facebook, now is a good time to start! This way you won’t miss any prize opportunities.) Bring a business card or an index card with your contact information (Name, current address, mobile phone number and valid email address) for free entry into our “Nostalgic Vending Machine” raffle featuring primary-colors packages of the freshest chocolates imported directly from the adorably vintage Boyer Factory Outlet in Altoona, which might be the coolest old-school candy shop we know. We also might throw a few fun pieces of plaid into this raffle. Because why not?
At the main event, we will invite you to kick back and fully activate your yesteryear mode. This is NOT a gala. There will NOT be a formal dinner. (Though we WILL offer you square pizza - also prepared by The Refinery - and other Refinery-prepared, wink-and-nod blast-from-your-past fare). Feel free to BYOB. There is NO particular dress code. But might we suggest a touch of plaid? Might we also suggest staying away from certain questionable fashion choices of the past?
But back to our dear Aunt Sally …
Picture it. The opening notes hit. Somebody at your table starts singing. Suddenly you are right back at a school Mass, sitting beside your classmates, in your finest pressed plaid, somehow knowing every word to a golden nugget of a hymn you have not consciously thought about in decades.
That is RE-VERSE & BE PLAID!
Alumni, faculty, and staff, from any school, open or closed, from any era: Please join us for this gloriously nostalgic Catholic schools throwback night celebrating THE SONGS THAT SHAPED US, THE FOOD THAT FUELED US, AND THE LIGHT THAT STILL LEADS US.
We’ve chosen to “GATHER THE PEOPLE” at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Center because not only is this beautiful and modern space one of our Diocese’s nicest spots for socializing, but it’s also conveniently located between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre with no county-to-county passport required. PLUS the former Seton Catholic High School, which is part of the Communion of Saints parish complex, offers built-in nostalgia in spades. (Seton alumni, we hope to see some of you!)
Our main event is free and open to the public, but we do need you to register.
Here’s what to expect:
1. First we’ll introduce you to our master song leader and storyteller Chris Brunelle. He has a huge following on YouTube - and is poised to hit 100,000 subscribers, so big doings - but if you haven’t yet heard his name, fear not! Spend the first Wednesday night of November with us, you will be lucky to GET to know him.
ALSO, YOU WILL KNOW ALL THE WORDS!
Chris is making his pilgrimage from Portland, Oregon, to Pittston via Scranton (where he is staying because he loves both “The Office” and trains). He’s actually bringing a two-night special to our Diocese during this meaningful week of remembrance and reflection that happens to include All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Chris’s travels will take him to Pittston on Wednesday (this one’s for us, Catholic school folk!) then to Hazleton on Thursday (where he’ll offer a more traditional story-and-song experience at Holy Rosary Parish in Hazleton). This registration page is for the After-Catholic-Schools Special event on Wednesday night only. Advance registration is not required for the Hazleton concert.
Wednesday’s event will serve up a lively, interactive performance sure to tug at the heartstrings of all generations of alumni. Chris will help us revive the soundtrack of our Catholic school years: the hymns we instantly associated and maybe still associate with school Masses, the kind that slipped deep into our memories and somehow stayed there, long after our honors geometry skills departed. Indeed, these are the songs you might THINK you forgot, but then the music starts …
Plan for a “Wait, I LOVE this one … “ type of evening. Bring an old classmate - or 20! - look their way when the music starts, and BE NOT AFRAID! To sing an old song unto the Lord … and sing like you mean it. No judgments will be made, but random prizes may be awarded.
There will be plaid. (In all kinds of places.)
There will be cafeteria flashbacks. Because who doesn’t love lunch after dark? Be sure to say a kind word to Midge and Jane, two Communion of Saints Parish legends in their own right who made their acting debuts in a world-famous Rectory, Set, Cook! foodie-fundraising video planned by our host pastor, Father Joseph Elston. For this special evening, Midge and Jane have agreed to reprise their roles but this time as “cafeteria ladies.” Thank you for your service, Midge and Jane!
WHO MADE BETTER LUNCH THAN THE IN-HOUSE CAFETERIA LADIES?
There will be a photo booth, rendered in mottled blue and the vintage kind (except this time you can use your smartphone). Maybe we’ll even have a cool Insta wall. We’ll definitely have better props than your school picture day ever offered.
There will be yearbooks and artifacts and even our own little mini “museum” showcasing all kinds of incredibly cool stuff we’ve pulled from our “vault.”
There will be legends. Living, breathing, A-list education folk from our rectories and convents, hallways and offices. Click on our ATTENDEES page to see who’s coming. It gets updated as new people register. If you’re registering, you can even add an old photo to our virtual photo wall and/or send us a message. We’d love to hear what you’re most looking forward to hearing, seeing, or doing.
And there will almost certainly be a moment when 100 or more adults discover they still know exactly when to come in hot on “City of God.”
This is no ordinary alumni meet-up. Show up with a big “lunch table” full of old friends or fly solo (in which case we’ll happily show you to a table of friends you’ve just not met yet).
Just please do REFRAIN from making other plans. Dig out your Catholic-school memories, warm up whatever remains of your choir voice, and come ready to lift up your hearts — and possibly the roof.
Because these songs never really left you.
You just need somebody to give you the first line.
THERE WILL ABSOLUTELY BE ORANGE DRINK (FOR GROWN-UPS) AT RE-VERSE AND BE PLAID!
THE SET LIST IS COMING TOGETHER! - 9 days ago
If you were given a handful of tokens - say 15 or so - for a jukebox, and you stepped up to the nostalgic-looking machine and it read, “GLORY & PRAISE GREATEST HITS: THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR CATHOLIC SCHOOL LIVES,” would you:
A. Struggle, deposit a few coins, and not know what to do with your leftovers?
or
B. Use all your tokens up quickly and be looking around for someone, anyone, and asking, “Hey, can I get some more, please?”
PUT US FIRMLY IN THE B. CAMP!
Because deciding which hymns should make the cut for MUST SING at Re-Verse and be Plaid and which ones, alas, will have to wait on the sidelines or be put into MAYBE NEXT YEAR or REALLY WISH WE COULD, BUT … is so much more difficult than you might think!
We want you to know that Chris Brunelle and your Re-Verse and Be Plaid team have been hard at work whittling and debating and making these profoundly challenging choices. And we *almost* have this set list down to a point where we think we can safely say we’ll have a 1.5 hour main event rather than a two-hour one. After all, we know this will be a Wednesday night, we know some of you will have traveled to get to Pittston, and we know a lot of you will have work the next day. So we really, REALLY want to show you a fantastic time while respecting your time. If you walk away singing and wanting more, we will have done our job!
Our online SCHEDULE page now lists the pre-event special event as open-house style from 4:54 until 6:54 p.m. (come the whole time or when you can, but just be in your seats for that painless but powerful EITC pitch from 6 until 6:15 p.m.) and the main event as from 7 until 8:30 p.m. See you soon! Tell a friend!
Posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2026, 12:20 pm EDT
