The “sisterhood,” as Edna Lardizabal Hussey put it, was in full force for several joyous hours at the Sacred Hearts Academy Scholarship Fund Gala, the evening of Oct. 5, in the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom.

In her mahalo remarks for being honored as one of three “distinguished alumnae” that evening, she was not referring specifically to the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary who have run the school for girls for nearly a century, though they are a huge part of it.

Rather, Hussey was talking about something bigger — a community of heart and spirit that binds the thousands of women whom that institution has ushered into adulthood over the years.

It’s real, and a bond easily demonstrated, as when Hussey, class of 1970, intoned without warning a high school prayer and had dozens of women in the vast room respond loudly, correctly, word for word, in perfect unison, and without skipping a beat, much less 40 years.

It’s a sisterhood that can convene classes from across the decades to celebrate one of their own. Nearly 1,000 people were there to join Hussey and her two fellow honorees, Lorna Leong Daniels and June Chun Chu.

Daniels graduated from Sacred Hearts in 1942 and began her career as a legal assistant in Honolulu law offices and at the district court. She ended up in the White House where she served as a staffer with the executive assistant. In between, she worked for Hawaii Senator Hiram Fong and Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and was chief of staff for three U.S. representatives from Illinois.

Daniels’ years of public service also placed her on various boards and commissions in Washington and in Virginia.

She lives in Virginia with her husband John Daniels, a retired army physician. She has five children.

Chu, class of 1952, is a lifelong public school educator who, along the way, went on a Marriage Encounter weekend with her husband Don and ended up expanding the movement throughout the Pacific and Pacific Rim over the course of 30 years.

With her husband she also worked, both as an administrator and volunteer, for the Diocese of Honolulu in family ministry, youth ministry, marriage preparation, parenting counseling and other ministries.

She recently led her classmates in raising $55,000 for a perpetual scholarship for Academy students, and $100,000 more for the school’s future performing arts center.

Don and June have three children and five grandchildren.

Hussey’s artistic, educational and leadership talents blossomed at the Academy where she was student council president and excelled in a wide range of activities. Gaining bachelor degrees in English and in secondary education from the University of Hawaii, she taught at St. Patrick School, Sacred Hearts Academy and Mid-Pacific Institute. She later earned a master’s in composition and rhetoric.

As principal of Epiphany School in Kaimuki, Hussey was instrumental in its merger with Mid-Pacific Institute where she now runs the elementary division.

She and her husband Herb have three sons, and one grandson.

All three honorees remembered, praised and thanked the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, who were well represented at the event.

During the seven-course Chinese meal, groups of students in matching muumuus serenaded tables with Hawaiian song and hula. Meanwhile, out in the lobby, tables full of fancy things were being silently auctioned away.

Veteran island crooner Al Waterson moved the evening smoothly along as master of ceremonies. A lively mix of music and humor provided by entertainers with ties to the school ended the evening.

The gala, the 12th annual, raised funds for scholarships.