Fire helps rekindle school spiritfor Class of ‘55

  • Sue Waldburger<br>Enterprise writer
  • Monday, March 3, 2008 6:43am

Among life’s lessons the Edmonds High School Class of 1955 has learned over the years is when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

The classmates’ 50-year reunion nearly turned sour when a fire Thursday, Aug. 11, at the South County Senior Center threatened cancellation of the party Saturday night, Aug. 13 (See related story, Page 12). But a never-say-die effort by organizers ended the potential debacle on a sweet note.

The gathering of 180 classmates and their spouses ultimately took place in the gym of their alma mater, the old Edmonds High School. The school had been the first choice of organizers when party planning began three years ago, but it was thought to be unavailable due to remodeling plans by the Edmonds Center for the Arts, organizers said.

Change was set in motion at about 7:30 a.m. Friday, Aug. 12, when Donna Marson Rice of the class organizing committee got a call informing her of the fire.

Rice, who as a mother of five has on-the-job crisis-management training, said she took the call from classmate Harry Robinson who happened by the fire scene on his morning walk.

“Since we had a reunion in 36 hours, I was concerned,” deadpanned Robinson, 67, who contacted Rice with the bad news before the center’s staff could.

Rice, 68, said she began burning up the telephone wires from her home in Startup for substitute sites.

Pickings were slim. Sites were either booked, lacked kitchen facilities or weren’t big enough, Rice found. Then through a serendipitous contact she happened upon Cindi Cruz of the Edmonds Department of Community Services.

Cruz, whose job also involves work with the Edmonds Center for the Arts, arranged for the class to rent the gym and kitchen facilities of the high-school-turned-arts-center. Described by Rice as a “lifesaver who deserves credit for saving the reunion,” Cruz also stopped by Saturday night to make sure all was well.

The bill for the facility rental should be about $660, Cruz said, less than the senior center would have been.

“It was kind of nostalgic being there,” Rice said of the gym she and her friends and family decked out in purple-and-gold decor. Robinson added that outsiders might see the space as an “old, broken-down gym, but it’s our old, broken-down gym.”

“People were so excited to see each other. We were planning on dancing but everyone wanted to talk … and you just have to let it happen,” said Rice, who began planning the reunion in 2002 after her twin brother, Donald, suggested it.

Five former teachers were among the guests who dined on homemade lasagna, roasted meats and salads while catching up with friends whose youthful pictures on their name tags made name recollection easier. A class picnic was on Sunday, Aug. 14 at Edmonds City Park.

The last class get-together was 26 years ago, according to Robinson, who quipped, “We didn’t have a 25-year reunion because we couldn’t count.”

The class plans on having a combined reunion next year with another class and will hold a solo event in 2007, Rice said.

Likely to be lending her a hand again will be classmates Marlene Wray Arnot, Jeanette Swanson Elmquist, Norma Betts Greig, Fay Symmes Klotzer, Annette Locke Rockwell and Sylvia Jacobsen Priest.

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