Birds of a Feather - - MLHS Cardinals - - Flock Together

2006

This month (October) marks an anniversary of sorts. It was two years ago, this month, at a dinner gathering of classmates that the Alumni Association was discussed and a committee was formed to try to get it off the ground.

The goals of the Association were to revive and expand upon the goals of the 2004 reunion that died when the reunion committee lost motivation. The two goals that had died were to become a non-profit organization and to provide a scholarship to a graduating senior at Medical Lake High School.

A series of meetings began which started the process of gaining the non-profit status. The committee wrote a set of By-Laws and a Mission Statement to submit to the State of Washington to obtain our State tax number which we finally received in March of 2005. We then submitted to the IRS to obtain our Non-profit status. This process took almost a year and, thanks to the persistence of Tim House, we finally received our non-profit status under Section 501
( c ) (3) of the IRS code February 3, 2006 which was effective back to March 24, 2005 (Our original application date).

The Association’s first year (2005) was devoted to establishing ourselves as a viable group and attempting to expand our membership. We attended Founder’s Day activities to recruit new members and held our first Annual Meeting at the “Dirty Shame” in Medical Lake.

With the additional funding available from the Founder’s Day membership drive, the Association was able to offer two $500 scholarships to the 2006 graduating class. The Founder’s Day 2006 membership drive was again successful and we saw some classmates renewing their membership and others becoming members for the first time.

The Alumni Association is starting to gear up for next years Founder’s Day. The first thing I would like to do is correct a typo from the last newsletter. Kathy (Schaefer) Murphy (’67) has volunteered to host the picnic/gathering in the park this year. We would like to invite anyone from any year ending in a “7” who would like to assist her to contact the Association and we will pass your name along to her.

There seemed to have been some confusion last year that the picnic in the park hosted by Linda (George) Barber (’66), her sister Debbie (George) Barber (’69) and Daria (Lein) St John (’66) was for the class of 1966. In fact, this was meant to be for anyone who wished to attend and have a chance to interact with other classmates in a more relaxed setting. We would encourage everyone who attends Founder’s Day to plan a stop at Water Front Park and spend time catching up with other classmates.

For those of you who would like to join us for Founder’s Day and are now putting together your vacation plans, Founder’s Day is the 3rd Saturday in June and the date will be June 16th. Some of the people who attended this year arrived early and went on an outing Friday doing a wine tasting tour and a boat trip on Lake Coeur d’ Alene. If this is something that appeals to you, let us know and we will try to assist you in making your plans.

The Alumni Association will again be present in the vendor area to sign up new members and answer questions. Be sure to stop by and say HI!

Board of Directors
Elections for the Board of Directors of the MLHS Alumni Association were held at the annual meeting of the Association. Tim House (’63) remains President, Jim Johnson (’66) resigned from the Board and was replaced by Don Turnbough (“61). John Musser (’63), Peggylee (Pritchett) Hallinan (’63), Linda Anne (Bumps) House (’63), and Bill Carl (’63) were also re-elected to their respective positions and Steve Klug (’66) was elected to Trustee.

At the Annual Meeting it was found that there was a discrepancy between the Association’s by-laws and other published material that state the term of office for the Board of Directors of the Association. At the September meeting the Board voted to amend the by-laws to make the term of Office for the Board to two (2) years.

Membership
In the past, the Association has operated financially, first with funds solicited from the local founding group and then a small active group remaining from the reunion of 2004 and memberships from Founder’s Days in 2005 and 2006. This has provided enough funding to carry out the limited activities thus far, such as the yearly scholarships and costs for this newsletter and our presence at Founder’s Day.

One of the goals of the Alumni Association is to develop a database that includes all of the alumni from Medical Lake High School from inception to present. The reason for this is to provide a way to allow classmates to reconnect, provide reunion organizers with an address list for their class, and in general give the Association a contact list for important updates of interest.