Reunion to mark Ephrata High School centennial

EPHRATA - One hundred years of Ephrata High School will be commemorated with an all-school, all-town reunion, beginning Friday night and continuing through Monday.

Activities range from individual class reunions to a Kove Club dance, to a program honoring Ephrata graduates who are military veterans and those who have served their communities.

"It's taken us two years to put it all together," said Beverly Mayer, who's on the organizing committee. To date about 1,300 Tiger alumni registered, she said.

The word is still getting out, even with less than a week to go, she said. "Every day, somebody says, 'Oh, I just found out about it,'" Mayer said.

The class of 2014 will take center stage first, with graduation ceremonies at 7 p.m. Friday at Kiwanis Field, directly behind the high school. Other classes have scheduled activities for Friday night, but the action really starts on Saturday.

Most of the activity will be at Kiwanis Field, with registration beginning at 8 a.m. Antique and classic cars will be displayed in the football field parking lot, with a car from every decade of the high school's 100 years, Mayer said. The "Tiger Track Walk" will be from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. "Costumes, banners, signs, T-shirts, hats, shakers, balloons," are all encouraged, according to the EHS-100 website.

The opening ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. at the football field. Margo Myers, class of 1979 and longtime television anchor in Seattle, will be the mistress of ceremonies.

Activities include introduction of the two oldest graduates who have signed up so far, both from the class of 1938. Students from the current music program have been working on the school song "the Orange and the Black," dating from 1911, and choral students will present their arrangement. The cheer squad will lead the school "fight song," lyrics by Doris Correll Matlock, class of 1949, who will be in attendance.

Former state archivist Jerry Handfeld will be the keynote speaker, Mayer said.

An open house for present and former teachers and administrators is scheduled for 2 to 3:30 p.m., and classes are holding individual reunions during the afternoon. An alumni baseball game is scheduled for 4 p.m. at Johnson-O'Brien Stadium, next to the football field. Players will be asked to provide their own gloves. The game will pit players who graduated in even years against alums who graduated in odd years.

Cost is $20 per player; a postgame pizza party is scheduled for about 8 p.m.

The Kove Club, which was active at school in the early 1940s through the mid-1960s, will sponsor a dance from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday at the St. Rose of Lima school, 520 Nat Washington Way. The Kove Club met the first and third Friday night during the school year, Mayer said, rocking it out to the jukebox - although they'll be using a deejay Saturday night. Admission is $10.

"Sunday is our Honor Day," Mayer said, and will include a salute to veterans. Grant County Superior Court Judge Evan Sperline, class of 1967, will be the master of ceremonies on Sunday.

Retired Air Force Colonel Herbert Petrak will be Sunday's keynote speaker.

The reunion committee has been taking nominations of Ephrata alumni who have contributed to their communities, and those people will be recognized Sunday.

The alumni committee also will present an award to the Paul Lauzier Foundation, which has provided scholarships for students for many years, both in Ephrata and around the Columbia Basin, Mayer said.

Alumni who stick around until Monday can take tours of the current high school, the Grant County Museum and the Grant County Airport museum. An historical presentation is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at the Nat Washington House, across the street from the Grant County Courthouse.

People who want more information about the reunion, or who want to attend events, can find a schedule on the website, EHS-100.