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(See MORE Big Red Run info below under 2008 Upcoming)
BIG RED RUN – POSTPONED until further notice
Keep watching here for new date!
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Flags! Tents! Banners! Balloons! The Football Team! Cheerleaders! The Band! Hundreds of alumni from all years! November 3, 2007 was quiet a day at Lamar High School. The occasion was the 70th Anniversary celebration sponsored by the Alumni Association. It was a beautiful November day and almost 2000 alumni showed up for the party! The front campus was covered with tents and banners and balloons. Golf carts were buzzing around ferrying alumni all over the campus. Alumni arrived in their cars, on their buses, with their scooters, and one lady even came in a hospital bed in an ambulance!
The day started with a Pep Rally featuring the band, the cheerleaders, the arrowettes, and the football team. The alumni gave the team an exciting sendoff as they left to play Bellaire High School for the annual Homecoming Game. Next, the alumni were invited into the school and directed to specially designated classrooms. The classrooms were filled with memorabilia. Yearbooks, trophies, and a giant enlargement of each class photo were on display in each room. Everyone had fun trying to find themselves and their friends in those photos. There was also a video of each yearbook playing in each room on the TV and those generated lots on interest and comments! Seeing familiar faces in the hall, meeting friends in the classrooms, finding teachers from years past - it all made the building buzz and the time pass quickly.
Lunch on the front lawn followed and was provided by Prince's Hamburgers. Alumni found seats under the tents or under the trees just like in earlier years. This gave everyone more time to reminisce before the final event - a special performance in the auditorium. Three current students began the performance with a song, a dramatic reading, and a piano solo. Then Francie Mendenhall took over looking wonderful and singing just as beautifully as when she was a student of Mrs. Lowder. A video of famous alumni was shown and then it was time for the highlight of the day. The famous Choralettes, dressed in black and white with pink Hawaiian leis around their necks, returned to Lamar in force. Over 100 Choralettes succeeded in evoking wonderful memories for the 1000 alumni in the audience. Organized by Connie Mims Pinkerton and conducted by "Mr. Keding" alias Marshall Maxwell, the Choralettes sang three medleys from their past. "Mr. Keding" conducted the session and admonished his students about getting serious and doing their best just as always. Various Choralettes turned his pages, tiptoed in and out of practice, and generally carried on as they had 30 years earlier. You could tell how much they enjoyed being back on stage at Lamar. You could also tell just how much the audience enjoyed seeing them there too. At the end, Mrs. Lowder got to address the audience, Betty Braly gave a moving speech about Mr. Keding from her hospital bed, the Choralettes led the audience in a moving rendition of the Alma Mater, and it was over. Everyone had such a good time, they want to do it again soon! Plans about more performances and a bigger and better 75th are already starting.
The Lamar football team beat Bellaire 42-7 that afternoon, and the Homecoming Dance that night at the school had over 1000 students attend. All in all it was a wonderful 70th Anniversary day for Lamar and its alumni. Hope you were able to be with us. If not, enjoy the photos available on this website and plan on being at the next big event.
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PHASE II of the Auditorium Project is FUNDED and beginning
LET THE RENOVATION BEGIN!
Fran Callahan, Alumni Executive Director, presents a check for $390,000 to Lamar principal Dr. James McSwain (7/11/07) to begin the next major step in the renovation project for the Lamar auditorium. After working for over four years, the Lamar Alumni Association has raised enough funds to begin the second element of the renovation. These funds will be put into a special account at HISD, which will handle the bidding and oversight and installation process. Our goal is to have this project completed this fall.
This particular effort will be to replace the 1400 old narrow (1936 vintage) wooden seats with new, wider upholstered chairs making attending a meeting or watching one of the school's fine arts presentations a much more comfortable experience! New carpeting and aisle lighting will also be included in this segment of the renovation. Construction will begin right after some necessary auditorium roof repairs have been completed by HISD.
Many thanks to all who have contributed to this effort!
Auditorium chairs may still be "purchased"
The Association will install a "plaque" with your name or the name of a "class or other group" on one or more chairs "purchased" and a list of chair purchasers will be posted on the Alumni website. Contact our Executive Director by phone or eMail for more information. Chair prices vary depending on location from $250 (balcony), $500 (back of the 1st floor), $1,000 (1st floor - front rows back on a 1st come, best location, basis).
REMINDER
Every ONE dollar ($1.00) contributed will count for TWO DOLLARS ($$2.00) in our Ned S. Holmes ('63) "matching funds" Capital Campaign Grant program. Therefore purchase of any chairs will add a "doubled amount" towards the $500,000 matching Grant. Your purchase will help us meet that challenge grant.
The LAMAR Sports Building
Another MAJOR project ($150,000) completed for the school
SPORTS BUILDLING COMPLETION - 7/2007 GRAND OPENING
Pictured (L to R) are
Mike Gilvray the Lamar head Baseball coach, Chris Weaver* & Cliff Philips*
(*with Windborn Const. Co., builders of the Sports Building)
For more sports bldg pix, CLICK HERE
The spring of 2007 saw the completion of the long awaited sports storage building at Lamar, the first new construction on the campus in 20 years! The building is 100' x 25' with two bathrooms and sits at the far South of the Campus. This has been a much requested addition at Lamar, especially the large bathrooms (that are air conditioned). The building will be available during games and practices. It will also be used to store equipment for all sports. Planning for the building began as part of an overall effort to improve the playing fields at Lamar in 2001. Sam Boggess, the Buildings and Grounds chairperson for the PTO, created the plan and then the PTO and the Alumni Association began raising the funds. The first large donation, $40,000, was given by the Fondren Foundation. Later donations from the Moran Foundation, the Broesche Family Foundation, the Lamar Business Resource Council, the West University Rotary Club golf tournament, the Big Red Run, and many individuals helped raise the $150,000 necessary to complete the building. Groundbreaking for the building was in November 2006, but due to an excessive amount of rain in December and January, construction began late. Now that it is complete, the coaches and students will begin moving their equipment into the building. It will be ready for use when school starts in August 2007.
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UPCOMING - Next Major Alumni Events
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2008 Upcoming - Alumni events:
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BIG RED RUN – POSTPONED until further notice
Keep watching here for new date!
April 19, 2008, Saturday, - 4th Annual Big Red FUN Run, Sat. @ 7:00a.m. on the school front lawn.
REGISTER for the Run at the website: www.SignMeUp.com*
Go to the tab for Calendar Search and type in the KEY WORD Lamar
Or go DIRECTLY to the BIG RED RUN URL www.signmeup.com/59410
April 23, 2008, Wednesday, Distinguished Alumni Luncheon at the River Oaks Country Club.
TIME: 11am,
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COST
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Individual Ticket
Table for 10
Table for 10
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$75.00
$1,000.00
$2,500.00
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Sponsor
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(see invitation – when posted here).
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*SignMeUp Payment methods accepted are:
Visa and MasterCard ONLY
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REGISTER for the LUNCHEON at the website: www.SignMeUp.com*
Go to the tab for Calendar Search and type in the KEY WORD Lamar
Or go DIRECTLY to the LUNCHEON URL www.SignMeUp.com/59871
Honoring:
Lt. Governor David Dewhurst
Mr. Henry Gadbois
Mrs. Leila McConnell Gadbois
Mrs. Joanne King Herring
Mr. John H. Lindsey
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(class of 1963)
(class of 1948)
(class of 1943)
(class of 1948)
(class of 1940)
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Other GROUP Events
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NEW or REVISED ITEMS on the website:
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