Every five years, the Howe Ex-Students Association prepares to bring all former Howe students together for one giant reunion that spans decades and decades of generations that represent the black and white. Just as in 2010, the reunion committee is back at it and ready claim 2015 as the biggest and best ever.
For several years, Janie Finney has been the go-to person for the organizing of the reunions. While the local online newspaper owner is the president of the Ex-Students Association, he is merely that in title only due to the hard work that Finney puts in.
Finney says that she believes the first ever all-school reunion took place in 1972 in conjunction with the City of Howe’s Centennial celebration. In that initial year, J.C. Waller was the president of the Ex-Students Association and the event was quite successful and they planned another one in 1976.
In 1988, Finney was the yearbook coordinator at Howe High School and they had just purchased a computer to use for production. With that new technology, she was able to put together the first directory of all former students.
“I guess that was the first year that I did the directory and didn’t get too involved in the rest of it.” said Finney.
Wanda Taylor, for many years was instrumental in keeping up with the records and the mailings of the lunch orders and tickets. Her and her husband Harold would do a lot of the behind the scenes activity while their son Jerry was the president. Finney says that Wanda Taylor is still very active with keeping up with the directory.
“She keeps the directory right by her chair and any time she hears that someone passes away, she marks it in that book and makes sure that we see the book when we’re updating our records.” said Finney. “She cuts out obituaries and keeps us informed. She’s a very good ex-student.
In recent years, former teachers have been making it back to the reunions. Finney says that it is due to better communication and easier ways to find people thanks to social media and even email.
Finney says that the hardest part of the reunion organization is getting people to understand how much work it is to get people involved.
“What I’ve found is that once people get involved in it, they discover that they have a passion for it.” said Finney. “It becomes not work at all, but a labor of love and labor of the heart. Especially if you’re a Howe ex.”
Anyone that ever went to Howe schools at any time is welcome to attend the all-school reunion.
“It’s for all ex-students because we have kids that were so related with their classmates or the teachers that they want to come back and visit.” said Finney. “They felt that connection here that a lof of schools don’t have. It’s important to be a one-school town. The family feeling that they have here and even today, we see the former students bringing their children here because they want them to experience the same thing that they had.”
Back in the 1990’s, the Ex-Students Association had some funds left over after the reunion and decided to set up a scholarship. Ever since then, the organization has done some sort of fundraiser to raise money for the scholarship fund. The requirements are that the student must be a relative of a former Howe student.
In 2010, the organization hired Kraig Parker, Elvis impersonator, to perform live at the HHS cafetorium. The money raised for that went directly to the scholarship fund. This year, they are going from the 1950s to the 1960s and will feature “Hard Night’s Day”, a Beatles tribute band to perform at the same location on Saturday night to close out the reunion weekend. The concert is open to anyone interested in attending. The money raised will fund the scholarships for the next five years.
There have been requests to move the reunion to the summer. With the all-school reunion happening every five years, it is being discussed that the 2020 reunion could be held in the summer.
“We don’t want to exclude anyone.” said Finney. “We want to get everyone that we can.”
The event will happen starting with the homecoming football game on Friday, September 18 and will continue on Saturday with a luncheon at 11am.
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