Pea Ridge High School Alumni Day 2017, an All-Years Reunion of graduates, teachers, former students and staff of Pea Ridge High School, will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, July 8, 2017, in the Pea Ridge High School cafeteria.
The annual school reunion is sponsored by the Pea Ridge High School Alumni Association. Several individual class reunions are also being planned for the weekend in conjunction with the all-years reunion. Donuts and coffee will be available as the event opens at 9 a.m. Several nice prizes will be offered to participants. Sandwiches and other related items will be available for lunch on-site. The all-years school reunionhas been held annually since the organization of the Alumni Association in 2007.
Traditionally, the Alumni Day has featured recognition to classes observing special anniversaries, such as 75 years (1942), 50 years (1967), and 25 years (1992). The Class of 1957 will celebrate 60 years in a combined reunion with the Class of 1958. Other classes are also arranging reunions.
The principal service program of the Alumni Association is the Alumni Scholarship Program, which has gradually increased in strength and numbers since making its first single scholarship grant to Heather Marlowe of the Class of 2007. For this year's Pea Ridge High School graduating class, Alumni Scholarships were awarded to Nathan Spencer, Rylie Hickman, Everett Watson, Hannah Means, Dalton Harwell, Tatum Richardson, Hailey Nesbitt, Christian Brown, Brett James Scott, James Sorrell and Devon Giertz. Alumni scholarships are given to assist PRHS graduates in beginning their college education with $500 granted for the first semester and a second-semester grant of $500 is made if grade points are adequately maintained.
The PRHS Alumni Association is a 501.c.3 non-profit organization, so all donations to the Scholarship Program are tax-deductible. The Alumni Association is overseen by a nine-member Board of Directors, which for 2016-2017 has included Ron David as president, Robin Hudson as vice-president, Jamie Cotton as secretary, Penny Schwitters as treasurer, Jerry Nichols as communications officer, and members-at-large Marcia Cothran, Barbara Owen, Linda Schooley and Fayrene Jones. Board members are elected by the Alumni Day attendees, and serve three-year terms. In July 2017, the terms of Ron David, Jamie Cotton and Marcia Cothran are concluding, so they will either need to be re-elected or to have a new board member elected to serve in their place.
Classes are welcome and invited to set up tables to display class memorabilia. Tables for that purpose will be available in the cafeteria on Saturday. Pictures of class activities of yesteryear are always of interest, as are school yearbooks and other materials. The event offers a great opportunity to reconnect with and to catch up on old classmates and schoolmates and to enjoy visiting and remembering school days.
The Pea Ridge Public School has grown through the years from a total enrollment of less than 200 to the current school population which exceeds 2,000. Today's students probably cannot "know everybody in school" as was possible in earlier days, but the school reunion offers students of all years a great opportunity to know people better, to strengthen ties and to maintain our community commitment to a strong educational tradition in Pea Ridge, a tradition reaching from the Pea Ridge College days in the 1880s to today's excellent 21st century public school system.
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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history and vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. The opinions expressed are those of the author. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected] or call 621-1621.
Editorial on 06/28/2017