Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 6, 1993 TAG: 9310060011
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER staff writer
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
In this case, it is part of the school's 20th-birthday celebration.
School officials have already sent copies of all the yearbooks from the school's two decades to the company to provide background on the school. Using that information and the literally thousands of pictures to be taken capturing a day in the life of the school, the company will quickly assemble a multimedia presentation that will have its world premiere Thursday.
The presentation - with nine projectors shooting the slides onto a screen complete with appropriate musical and sound backgrounds - will be given at three student assemblies Thursday and repeated that night at 8 p.m. in the Little Theater for the public.
The sounds will include the growl of the Cougar that symbolizes the school, the theme from "2001: a Space Odyssey" which is played by the school band on special occasions, and the familiar sound of the school bells heard during the day.
"They've been ringing like that for 20 years," said Principal Thomas DeBolt. "A lot of the classic sounds are there. If you graduated from here in '82 and you hear that sound, `ding, ding, ding,' you'll know exactly what's going on."
Assistant Principal Carl Lindstrom, who has been at the school since it opened its doors 20 years ago, will introduce each of the presentations.
Graduates of Pulaski County High School have been invited along with the public to the 8 p.m. Thursday presentation. A social will follow in the Commons, where graduates will have a chance to visit with some of their former teachers.
They have also been invited to Friday night's homecoming football game, when special places in the stadium will be reserved for each of the classes from 1975 to 1993.
That may not seem to compute to 20 years. But the school was open for the 1974-75 academic year and, if you count the graduating classes from 1975 to 1993 on your fingers, you get 19. The 20th-year graduates will be the current crop of seniors in the 1993-94 year.
Invitations have been mailed to all graduates at their last-known addresses.
At halftime, the alumni will be asked to assemble on the track around the football field for a March of the Graduates to music of the '70s and '80s. A giant birthday cake will be unwrapped, and fireworks will be exploded for the occasion.
After the game, the graduates will be invited to an outdoor dance on the track to music from the times they were in school.
DeBolt said symbolic keys to the school will be given to any graduates who drop in for visits this week.
"Every faculty member will have an anniversary T-shirt on," he said.
Responses from graduates have come from all over the country, including one from Jeanne P. Whitman who is now associate vice president and executive director of development at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
"My mother recently retired from the principalship at Critzer [Elementary School], and she keeps me up to date on the Pulaski County school system," Whitman said. "She reminds me that my brother, my sister and I are products of the county school system and that much of the happiness and satisfaction we have found in our personal and professional lives owes to the good education that we received."
Whitman said she was grateful "for the many kindnesses and personal attention that I received both in the classroom and through the sports and other activities in which I participated . . . but more importantly, such dedicated, intelligent and thoughtful leadership in the classroom. After all is said and done, that is the only thing that really matters."
by CNB