GEORGE TOWN: Some 130 members of the LaSaints58 group met up after two years at a reunion held in Penang.

The group comprising former La Salle School and St Xavier’s Institution students born in 1958 met for food and drinks on Saturday (July 23). This was their ninth reunion since 2008.

Many of the members have since left Penang to work in other states or countries after completing their Form Five or Form Six, but some were able to keep in touch and occasionally, they would meet up in small groups.

It was decades before they were able to seek out their long-lost buddies, whom they had not seen for 33 years, through the group via its first reunion dubbed RU1, 12 years ago.

The pre-pandemic reunions would attract about 200 ex-students, including girls from the sixth form, but the number was fewer this year due to the disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The organisers were pleased with a turnout of some 130 members, including 14 former teachers, in spite of the hassles of arranging for flights and visas.

The highlight of the latest reunion was an exhibition by Kuala Lumpur-based artist Anne Koh whose paintings of orchestras and musicians are highly sought by collectors.

She presented her series of portraits of some LaSaints58 members whose stories will appear in an upcoming book titled “Urghhlings Vol 3 – Brothers of The Urghhlings Marsh” by a group member with the pseudonym Wu Yonggang.

The book's stories are borrowed from Shi Naian’s classic novel “The Water Margin – Outlaws of the Marsh”.

The portraits were originally intended to be auctioned off during the evening but they were pre-sold instead.

Koh had generously donated the full proceeds from the art sale to the group’s campaign called Urghhlings Charity, an initiative to help the needy.

The charity has helped to raise more than RM50,000 over the past two years with the proceeds coming from the sale of their books and paintings.