THE PURPOSE OF THE DEERING/DELTA C-7 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
The purpose of this Association will be to bring together the alumni that includes the graduates, former students, past teachers, administration, cooks, mechanics, bus drivers and anyone who had a connection with Deering High School from 1927 thru 1966 and Delta C-7 High School from 1967 thru 2006 to reminisce and share memories of our school days with the friends we made.
And to do this, we will plan an annual reunion on Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. To preserve the memories of Deering High School and Delta C-7 High School by collecting and displaying memorabilia in a place of honor.
To raise monies to grant an annual scholarship each year to a Senior of Delta Co-7 High School beginning in 2007. To do this we will accept donations and also have fundraisers to raise money for the scholarship.
To take part in the activities of Delta C-7 High School and help whenever and wherever we can.
(Approved by the fifty people present at the organizational meeting on January 7th, 2006.)
If you would like to join the Deering/Delta C-7 Alumni Association, please contact
FROM THE FEBRUARY 2008 EDITION OF THE ALUMNI NEWSLETTER:
IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN!
THIRD ANNUAL SCHOOL REUNION
SATURDAY, MAY 24, 2008
The first quarterly business meeting for 2008 was held on Jan. 5th at the Pemiscot County Career and Technology Center (formerly Pemiscot County Vo-Tech). The same officers that have served the past two years were re-elected again. The officers are as follows: President, Shirley McMahon Garrett, Class of 1953, 1st V.P., Cathy Tidwell Bradford, Class of 1974, 2nd V.P. Carolyn Scott Langbecker, Class of 1962, Co-Secretaries, Sara Wilkerson Hogan, Class of 1990, and Kelly Wilkerson, Class of 1996, and Treasurer, David Wilkerson, Jr., Class of 1966. It was decided at the meeting to give away a 32” Digital/HD TV this year at the Reunion. Tickets will be $5.00 each. You may buy tickets on the Registration Sheet or at the door.
The Third Annual School Reunion of the Alumni Association of Deering High School and Delta C-7 HighSchool will be on Saturday, May 24th, 2008, at the Pemiscot County Career and Technology Center.
It will be held at the same building as last year that is located at the intersection of Hwy 412 & Hwy Z four miles west of Hayti and approximately eight miles east of Kennett. Again, this year a school campus tour will be held at the Delta C-7 Public School Campus in Deering from 9:00 a.m. till 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. till 3 p.m. Doors will open at 8:00 a.m. at the Vo-Tech Building. If you do not go for the campus tour, come on and get registered early. REGISTRATION will be different this year. We had approximately 125 that did not pre-register last year and that caused the big glitch at the front door. The front door of the building will be closed off this year. Everyone will enter from the back door (west entrance). There is a parking lot at the back of the building. On the inside there will be two lines. Someone will direct you through the right line. In the line for those that DO PRE-REGISTER, you will sign in and then move along to the next person(s) sitting there. They will need to check off your name on a list of pre-registrations. You will then receive your blue lunch ticket and a program and move on through to the auditorium. FOR THOSETHAT DO NOT PRE-REGISTER, you will be directed down the other line where you will sign in. Then, if you are going to eat lunch ($15.00 EA. AT THE DOOR), you will pay and receive a red ticket and program. If you do not want to eat lunch and to just visit, you will still need to sign in on the side for the people that do not pre-register.
Again this year, the lunch will be catered by Strawberry’s Barbecue from Holcomb, MO.
Prices for the lunch will be $12.00 for those that pre-register (Children ten and under will eat free).
For those that do not pre-register the lunch price will be $15.00 at the door. PLEASE PRE-REGISTER.
We are accepting DONATIONS for the SCHOLARSHIPS to be presented at Graduation in May.
PRE-REGISTRATIONS WITH YOUR CHECK OR MONEY ORDER WILL BE ACCEPTED UNTIL MAY 22ND !!! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE CUT-OFF DATE FOR US TO ORDER THE FOOD.
If you have not paid your MEMBERSHIP DUES at that time and wish to do so, there will be a separate table set up for that. When you pre-register, please try to send in your membership dues then. That will be a great help to us!
THE PRE-REGISTRATION SHEET IS SHOWN ON THE THIRD PAGE OF THIS LETTER. PLEASE COMPLETE (DO NOT CUT IN HALF) & MAIL TO ADDRESS SHOWN ON THE PAGE.
MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO DEERING/DELTA C-7 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION.
There will be memorabilia tables set up in the south hall of the building with all the memorabilia books and yearbooks there for you to see. If you wish to set up an individual table for your class, please let us know ahead of time so arrangements for enough tables can be made. You will be able to come in on Friday afternoon and arrange a display on your individual tables. Again, this year, if you wish to have a separate room for your class to visit, please let us know ahead of time. The number of rooms is limited.
ABSOLUTELY NO ALCOHOLIC DRINKS OR SMOKING IS ALLOWED.
A short program with announcements etc. will begin at approximately 11:00 a.m. at the Vo-Tech Building after which lunch will be served. There will be someone sitting at the entrance to the lunch room to take your tickets so please have them ready when you get to that person. After lunch there will be visiting with schoolmates until 4 p.m. We would appreciate it very much if some of you would hang around and help us take down decorations and clean up the room. The campus tour at the school will resume at 2 p.m. and continue until 4 p.m. There will no entertainment this year. We will have background music from the 50s to the present time. It will be played low so that it does not interfere with all the visiting and reminiscing.
We will be at the Vo-Tech Building on Friday from 1 p.m. till 4 p.m. to decorate and set up everything.
If you would like to come and help us, we would appreciate it. If we can get registration all set up, you will be able to go ahead and sign in and avoid the line on Saturday morning by showing your ticket at the door.
We are updating the mailing list for the graduates and former students of Deering High School and Delta C-7 High School. We are still searching for addresses that we were not able to find last year and for those that the letters came back. If you know of a classmate or family member who has not received any newsletters or telephone calls or has not seen the newspaper articles, please call us so that we can put them on our mailing list. Please call, write or email me at the following:
DEERING/DELTA C-7 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
SHIRLEY (McMAHON) GARRETT (Class of 1953)
20350 St. Hwy EE, Kennett, MO 63857
Tel: 1-573-888-3059 Email: scmg35@bootheel.net
MEMBERSHIP DUES are $10.00 for each person and cover Jan. 1st thru Dec. 31st. Membership is open to all graduates, former students, teachers, and anyone who works or ever worked at the schools. Members will receive two newsletters during the year.
The Association holds business meetings throughout the year on the first Sat. of January, April and October. In July the meeting is held on the second Saturday so it will not interfere with the Fourth of July Celebrations. The business meetings are held at the Vo-Tech Building from 1 p.m. till 3 p.m. A mass mailing of this newsletter (over 1200 copies) will be mailed out in February or
March to let as many as we can know of the Annual School Reunion held on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. If anyone changes his or her name, address, telephone or email, PLEASE NOTIFY US. Be sure to include year of graduation and/or years of employment on all correspondence including the checks you send us. If you would like to serve on a Committee or help us at the School Reunion, please let us know. We are going to need lots of help to again make this event successful.
If we do not receive a response from those who have received a newsletter the last three years, those names will be removed from our mass mailing list next year. The expense of ink, paper, stamps, etc. is becoming cost prohibitive.
DON’T FORGET THE WEBSITE , CHECK IT OUT: www.deeringmo.com
MORE NEWS: THE NEXT BUSINESS MEETING WILL BE SATURDAY, APRIL 5TH, 1 P.M.
PEMISCOT COUNTY VO-TECH BUILDING four miles west of Hayti, eight miles east of Kennett at the intersection of Hwy. 412 & Hwy Z. We encourage members to come to the meeting to help with the plans for the Third Annual School Reunion.
BREAKING NEWS: The Two-Story Grade School Building Preservation Committee met with the School Board in January. They have given us permission to use one of the rooms on the first floor to house our memorabilia. We do hope to have that room ready for you to visit during the campus tour. We are working to have this building placed on the National Historic Register. More plans will be announced at the Reunion.
If you have any memorabilia (pictures, graduation programs, certificates, etc.) that you would like to donate to the Alumni Association, please let us know and bring memorabilia to the Reunion.
FROM THE OCTOBER 2007 EDITION OF THE ALUMNI NEWSLETTER:
WOW! The Second Annual School Reunion was a Big Success!
THANKS to each and everyone that worked very hard and THANKS to all those who came from near and far to make the School Reunion a success! We had 400 people from 20 states. It was great seeing a lot of school friends we had not seen in over 50 years. The food was great! The entertainment was great!
We had prepared for 300 people and 400 people came. We thought for a while we might not have enough food but as it turned out, THANKS to Strawberry’s Catering and our hard-working Hospitality Committee, there was plenty of food for everyone. And how about the Entertainment! The Elvis Impersonator, Shelby Dee, was great!
Yes, we did have a couple of glitches but we have already revamped the check-in process for next year to make it easier and quicker to check in everyone. We had between 75 and 100 people who had not preregistered and that slowed down the process. We were glad that they all came and we will try harder next year.
BE SURE TO MARK MAY 24TH ON YOUR 2008 CALENDAR FOR THE
DEERING/DELTA C-7 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION THIRD ANNUAL SCHOOL REUNION!
The Alumni Reunion on May 27th 2006 was a ‘BIG’ success. Over 300 people from 18 states were present. Yes, it was hot and humid but everyone survived and had a great time visiting with classmates, schoolmates and teachers. Some had not seen one another in over 50 years. There was a former classmate of mine there that I had not seen in approximately 58 years. What a wonderful surprise!
The food was ‘GREAT’! The Delta Ruritan Club members did a great job of cooking the meat. And the Hospitality Committee led by Joann Blankenship Atwill (Class of 1962) and her workers did a fantastic job of preparing the rest of the food and serving everyone. And how about those fabulous peanut butter cookies that Joyce Patterson prepared with the help of several ladies. ‘THANK YOU’ to all of those people who worked hard to make the School Reunion a success. But we do want to say a special ‘THANK YOU’ to Bob and Loretta (Battles) Tomlinson (Class of 1966) who worked very hard on this project but were already committed to a family reunion and were unable to attend but they said they would be there next year.
The picture is great that The Steele Enterprise newspaper reporter made from the second story of the old grade school building. If you would like to get a copy, you will need to contact the newspaper in Steele, Mo. We have received several pictures from different alumni who were there. If you have pictures and have not sent them to us, we would appreciate your sharing them with us. Before next year’s school reunion, we plan on putting together a scrapbook that will contain all the pictures we can obtain.
We are already planning next year’s ‘80th ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEERING SCHOOL SYSTEM’. The first high school graduation of Deering High School was in 1927 with four young women graduating. (Lillie Copple, Bertha Golden Jackson, Mamie Stover Ledbetter, Naomi King Ward). All are now deceased.
Our third quarterly meeting was held Saturday, October 7th, at the Pemiscot County Vocational School that is located west of Hayti on U. S. 412 at the intersection with St. Hwy Z. It is located on the south side of the highway. Turn south on St. Hwy Z and immediately turn back (East) on the two-lane road to the entrance to the building. The building is bigger and really nice and it is AIR-CONDITIONED. It was voted unanimously to hold next year’s school reunion there. We are working on being able to tour the school campus at Deering on Saturday morning before it gets hot. We are also working on lots of other ideas.
After the first quarterly meeting of 2007 on Saturday, January 6th, we will send out a newsletter with all the details of the school reunion. We wanted to let you know the date now so you can start making plans to attend. We will be sending out a mass mailing to all graduates and former students and all of the school staff that worked in the school system through the years that we have an address for.
If you are a class representative, we really need your help with addresses for your class. We do not have class representatives for several classes from Delta C-7 High School. If you would like to be a class rep and help us find addresses for your classmates, please contact Shirley McMahon Garrett at address shown below. We want to find as many people as we can. It was also voted at the meeting that any dues that are paid by new members after October 1st would be counted as 2007 DUES ARE DUE IN JANUARY 2007. Officers for 2007 will be elected at the meeting on January 6th. A nominating committee was appointed and they will bring a slate of officers for 2007 to that meeting. Members of the nominating committee are Joann Atwill, Mickey Wilkerson and Elmer Richardson.
We are looking for a newsletter editor. If you are interested in helping us, please contact Shirley McMahon Garrett (Class of 1953).
We love hearing from everyone so call me (573-888-3059) or email me (scmg35@bootheel.net) or write me at address below. Since there were no yearbooks prior to 1961, we are looking for school pictures to put in our Memorabilia Books. We are also looking for pictures and news articles about the accomplishments of our graduates. For our deceased alumni we have several obituaries but we are looking for others. If you can help us with this matter, please let us know.
SHIRLEY MCMAHON GARRETT, PRES.ALUMNI ASSOCIATION FOR
