Strokes from other Pens

Letter to the Editor,

The annual meeting of the Haxtun High School Alumni will be held from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28, which is the day of the Corn Festival in Haxtun. This year the location of the gathering has been changed. There will be an Open House reception held at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Haxtun. This decision was made by myself, LaVonne Hart, coordinator of the HHS Alumni.

I have several reasons for the venue change. Most of the local alumni know me as being the coordinator for the organization for around 23 years. I am at the age where it is becoming more than I want to do to get everything in place for the event. The school has been the meeting place since the organization was formed many years ago. In the past few years, the attendance has gone down. In putting together plans for the annual meeting, I have relied on the class that is having it’s 50th class reunion to help with registration, updating the addresses on the Alumni database, collecting donations for the scholarship fund and also providing someone from the class to be Master (or Mistress) of Ceremonies for the meeting. The hope has always been for classes that are having a reunion to come to the meeting to be recognized. Most years there are very few or even none that come to the school for that. The people that attend the meeting are mostly those who are in town for the Corn Festival and are not having a reunion of their class. The decision to relocate may not be acceptable to some. Please accept my apology for taking the initiative to change the venue. I did visit with many alumni from Haxtun to ask if they thought the change would be okay for this year's get-together. Everyone that I asked was agreeable with my decision to go to the Lutheran Church this year.

Next year, there may be someone else in charge and then they can decide if they want to keep going to the church or go to the school again. The school is always available for our meeting. We have to have custodians set up chairs, open the doors and come back later to put everything back in place. Even some of those people are involved with other events downtown. They do not complain, but sometimes it is an imposition for them to be at the school when they have other duties. I do appreciate them going out of their way for us each year. Let's give them a break this year.

As for the new plan for this year; I have some help from the class of 1974. They are also coming to the church on Friday evening, Sept. 27 for their 50th reunion. I will have their help in setting up for the next day, Sept. 28. There will be refreshments served at the reception. The gathering will be a time of visiting with former classmates and friends. A microphone will be available for people to share stories or news with the group. I hope that everyone will be understanding of my decision to change this year. I have enjoyed working on communicating with classes that may be having a reunion. It helps that I have lived in Haxtun all of my life (except for when my husband, Phillip was in the Army) I still can remember who family members are or at least be of help in finding someone you are looking for.

The database at the High School has been a great help for people to get addresses of past classmates. I strongly encourage all alumni to let the school know of any address changes and also to report deceased members. Keeping information current is very important. So I am requesting that when you read this letter, you make an effort to update any information that you have for your class. I hope that my health lets me keep doing what I do for the HHS Alumni. I do not want to quit, but I need to know that someone will step up and offer to take over when I can no longer do a good job.

The Haxtun-Fleming Herald Editor, Candie Fix, and I work together to get all of the information from the classes so that she can put it all together in a publication later. She and her partner, Spring Atchison, are very talented and do a great job in reporting the events of the Haxtun Corn Festival, including the Alumni news. I am looking forward to seeing many friends from the past at the Haxtun Corn Festival on the 28th of September. I am looking for many to come to the Lutheran Church for the Alumni Open House reception. Come in, meet and greet old friends and make new friends when you can! Coming back home is always a good time! See you soon!

HHS Alumni Coordinator,

LaVonne Hart,

from the Class of 1961