SWHS Alumni Assn - recent news

I attended the monthly meeting of the SWHS Alumni Association on Wednesday and picked up some news tidbits:

Membership to date for 2009 is 587 members. Out of a potential 4500 people who are eligible to join. It's $10 a year. Many people pay for multiple years at a time. Think about it. Every surviving grad of the Class of 46 is a member.

Their recent geranium and bake sale is one of their major fundraisers for the year. On May 2nd they sold 945 geraniums and 170 tomato plants. Jim Kallio bought the last tomato plant - I was there to see it.

The SWHS Alumni Assn has been raising money for scholarships for 15 years. This year they awarded seven $1500 scholarships to SWHS grads (some current year, some past years) for students pursuing vocational education.

They also award "named" scholarships funded by special donations or families of deceased grads. For next year, there will be a scholarship named after Jack Newcomer [who was our grade school music teacher] and funded by his family. The details are being worked out as to the qualifications for applicants.

The SWHS Alumni Assn still sends out paper/hard copy newsletters about twice a year. They contain a lot of interesting info about Sedro-Woolley as well as class info. Plan to join! I posted membership info on this blog some months ago, but if you need that info again and can't find it here, just let me know.

More soon.

Our brick in Hammer Heritage Square

Last year a few Class of 71 members pooled our funds and purchased a brick for Hammer Heritage Square. These bricks are only installed about once a year - in time for Loggerodeo and other summer activities. It is fun to walk through our town square and read the commemorative bricks and see who is there. I'm hoping that our brick will give some other classes the same idea. When you come to visit S-W be sure to stop in the square and look for ours! The Farmer's Market is also held in this square, every Wednesday afternoon through the summer. This year the Farmer's Market season starts on May 27th.
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The city, as you can probably guess, has had some financial cutbacks recently. They announced in the paper that the city can afford to buy the beautiful hanging flower baskets that make the city so pretty in the summer. But this year they could not afford to hire a seasonal employee to go around and water and tend the baskets. They were looking for a volunteer. Yesterday, at the Chamber of Commerce meeting, it was announced that an employee of the Les Schwab Tire Center had offered to be the basket-caretaker this year. So we will be able to keep our beautiful baskets! They hang from utility and lamp posts downtown, as well as from the gazebo in Hammer Heritage Square. I'll take photos later. No baskets yet.

Since my day in the tulip fields the weather has turned cold and wet again. We're hoping for a big change starting tomorrow!

Tulip Season

The beautiful Skagit Valley is full of tulips! They have finally arrived, after a winter of COLD weather. We also have a lot of daffodils in bloom right now - they are usually ending as the tulips come on. I took a trip to Tulip Town today (off the McLean Rd between Mt. Vernon and La Conner) and enjoyed the color. In this photo you can almost see Mt. Baker in the distance. A beautiful day.

SWHS Class of 1971 scholarships - deadline extension

The deadline for applications, as described below, has been extended to April 30, 2009.

Please submit all materials as soon as possible.

Thanks!

SWHS Class of 1971 scholarships now accepting applications

Sedro-Woolley High School Class of 1971 is pleased to announce that two new scholarships are now available for 2009. Offered in conjunction with the Sedro-Woolley High School Alumni Association, the Class of 1971 scholarships are available to graduates of Sedro-Woolley High School or State Street High School, regardless of the year of graduation.

Each scholarship is for $2500; one is exclusively for students pursuing an academic degree and the other is for students pursuing vocational education. Awards are competitive and the due date for applications is April 15, 2009.

For additional information or to request an application send an e’mail to: Classof71scholarships@comcast.net .

Bus Jungquist, S-W businessman, passes away

Another icon of Sedro-Woolley is gone. “Bus” Jungquist, owner of the furniture store in downtown Sedro-Woolley from 1967 to 2008, was a big supporter of Sedro-Woolley and our high school. He passed away on April 1, 2009 at the age of 91.

Bus graduated from Burlington-Edison High School in 1936 and attended WSU for one year. He married his college sweetheart, Bernice, in 1939 and served in the Army from 1943 until 1946. He worked in several business in Skagit County (including owning Bus’s Grocery on Jameson Street in S-W) until he opened Bus Jungquist Furniture in 1967. It was an anchor store in our downtown, long before the concept of “malls” and “anchor stores” became familiar. He served as the distribution center for miniature wooden hope chests provided by the Lane Furniture Company to all graduating senior girls and we all made that shy trip into the store to ask for ours. It was such a great pleasure for him and the Lane representative became one of his closest friends.

He was an active Rotarian and belonged to George Baldridge Post #43 American Legion and Trinity United Presbyterian Church. He was a mainstay at Joy’s Bakery downtown where we all still go to “see and be seen”. He served the city and his community in many other ways. His full obit is available at:
http://www.legacy.com/skagitvalleyherald/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=125703681

Or check www.goskagit.com for obituaries published on April 4, 2009.

Thanks, Bus, for showing us what an independent business owner does for the town he supports. We remember you.

SWHS photos

Here are a couple of photos I took today, on the first day that there has been any sunshine and dry weather of note. I had been meaning to post photos of SWHS the way it looks today and these are two photos of the main building. The modern side faces Third Street (and the gym) and the old "Union High School" entrance faces north, on what used to be Nelson Street. Now it is a nice concrete-paver mall with lights and some outdoor seating.




















In 1969 when I broke my ankle, skiing, I left my crutches at the top of these stairs and rode all the way out to the L&M Drive In with friends before I realized that I hadn't brought the crutches...luckily, we retrieved them without incident. That was 40 years ago this month. Ankle is fine, thanks for asking.

I also went to the SWHS Alumni Association meeting today where we discussed upcoming events. The Geranium Sale/Bake Sale is scheduled for May 2nd. It is a major fund-raiser for the Alumni Assn's scholarship fund. Also the all-class picnic will be Saturday, July 11th. Be sure to get that on your calendar and I'll let you know when to purchase tickets. It's a fun gathering at Riverfront Park for graduates of all years and friends. It will be catered again this year by Joy's Bakery - Janet and Mike Joy.

The monthly gathering of Class of 71 will be Tuesday, March 31st at Common Ground in Burlington. 5ish to 7ish. Come on over and visit around the big table! Maybe we'll watch Nancy knit!

More as it develops...