MRHS Foundation
The establishment Mt. Rainier High School Foundation this past summer will help perpetuate and build on a tradition of excellence. We are developing a permanent endowment fund that supports all the programs at the school, and will outlast any individual program or administration. Although this foundation will not solve all of the funding issues at the school, it is a positive statement about how we in the community can help shape our future. While independent from the Highline School District, the foundation will work closely with the principal, staff and community to establish funding priorities.
Mt. Rainier High School Foundation Mission Statement
Vision: To create a foundation to advance the educational aims of Mount Rainier High School students
Mission: To strengthen our community by fostering, encouraging and promoting the achievement of excellence at Mount Rainier High School
Goals:
To learn more, or if you would like to participate, contact Bud Bigelow at budbigelow@aol.com.
Contributions and suggestions are always welcome. Send them to:
Mount Rainier High School FoundationMt. Rainier Sports 2000 - 2001
Mt. Rainier's sports programs had another successful year during the 2000 - 2001 school year. During the fall season Girls Cross-Country and Girls Soccer both won Seamount league championships. During the winter season Gymnastics and Boys Swim Team were the league champions. Boys Swim Team went on to win State and were also National Points champions. This was their third state title in ten years. They had sixty consecutive dual meet wins. During spring season Tennis and Baseball won league championships. It was the tenth title for Tennis in twelve years. Baseball went from seventh place in league the previous year to first place and won the first league title in nineteen years.
MRHS alumnus Chuck Laycock holds an alumni basketball tournament every year right after Thanksgiving. Eight to twelve teams of alumni get together and have a blast! Information on this year's tournament will be announced in a future newsletter.
Update for 2002
The Math Team went to the National Mu Alpha Theta math competition in Denver last July, and came back with a caseful of trophies. It was another great year for coach Tosch and the MRHS Math Team. The Boys Swim Team placed 4th at State this year! Congratulations on another strong performance!
A Note from Principal Toni Pace
Dear Mount Rainier Alumni
WELCOME BACK TO THE MOUNTAIN! This is our first alumni newsletter and we are excited to tell you about all of the wonderful things that are happening now at Mount Rainier High School.
As you know, Mount Rainier is now and always has been a premier high school. We have the best students, the best staff and the best programs right here. In fact, a goal of our staff and students is to become "The Best High School in the State." Below are listed eight specific areas that we will be concentrating on in the next three years to meet that goal.
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Although we have started the work toward meeting our goal, we still have much to do. Please fell free to help us as we endeavor to raise the standards for every Mount Rainier High School Student. There are many ways to get involved. Please contact the Foundation or contact me directly by phone or email. We want to stay connected with the students who graduate from Mount Rainier.
I look forward to meeting with you.
Sincerely,
Toni Pace, Principal
Mount Rainier High School
Phone: 206-433-2445
Email: pacet@hsd401.org
June 1 All School Reunion
Mark your calendars for June 1, 2002 and join us for the All School Reunion. Events are being planned both at the high school and a dinner at the nearby Des Moines Field House. More information will be forthcoming soon. If you would like to help, please contact us at these addresses: Mount Rainier High School Foundation, PO Box 13261, Des Moines, WA 98198-1004, or at budbigelow@aol.com
What's in a Name?
Alumni, this is your newsletter. What should we call it? What would you like to see included in it? Please send your suggestions and feedback to the addresses above for the Foundation. We would love to hear from you!
Website is Coming!
A MRHS Alumni website is under construction. Check out http://www.mrhs.info/.
News from Alumni
From Gwen Spencer, Class of 2001
The standard honors tenth grade curriculum involves reading the play Julius Caesar. In any class but Quiz's this would mean hordes of teenagers hesitantly stumbling through Shakespeare's words and reading the footnotes in the hall the day before the test. Quiz's class was different.
The scene in which Brutus debates with himself over the merit of killing Caesar happened to coincide with a major windstorm. Quiz was halfway through reading, or rather acting, the part of Brutus when the wind plundered the power of our unfortunate mid-sixties school building. The class was plunged into darkness. Quiz dashed through the blackness to the door which he flung open, making way for his students who ran past him into the open air. My English teacher leapt onto the stump of a tree and resumed his passionate reading. Whirlwinds carried spirals of dead leaves around the figure of the orator who was contorted under the weight of the Roman Republic. We huddled at the base of the stump. The cold was deflected by the warmth of our excitement. This was Shakespeare.
In addition to Mr. Quesinberry's contagious enthusiasm for intellectual pursuits, he passes to his students a sense of pride and commitment to the world of the mind. I, like many of my contemporaries, entered 10th grade Honors English solely hoping to get an A. By the time I left, a fundamental change had taken place in the way I viewed learning. Mr. Quesinberry taught that learning is less about memorization and more about the process of thinking and analyzing. It was his lessons that ultimately made me fully realize the inherent joy of understanding, rather than the immediate gratification of a good test grade.
More than anything, Mr. Quesinberry proved to his students that academics could be "cool", that learning was not something you were forced to do, and that you wouldn't rather be home sick.
For what he gave me, and what he gives all his students, I would like to honor Mr. Steven Quesinberry.
Gwen Spencer: Class of 2001
From Mike Dinkelman, Class of 1976
Welcome to MRHS76!
Ever been to Classmates.com? The implied promise is great. You see all the names of your long lost buddies from High School, you sign up, and then you wait for the personal reunions to begin. I have to pay how much??? Plus, I don't get any email addresses unless someone answers me?
Don't get me wrong, The idea of Clasmates.com is great and I realize it costs money to run such a service. Still, it wasn't worth $29 a year to me just to say "hello" and, from what I could see, not many others were doing so either. What to do?
So first, off to Yahoo.com. They have free list hosting and it's as easy to setup. You have to put up with incessant advertising but it's not too hard to ignore. Some clicks here, some settings there and it's done. A name? I should keep it short because I'll probably need to type it a lot. MRHS76? That's it, welcome to MRHS76. Hmm, now I have a list site but where to get in touch with people? Ah heck, I capitulated and paid Classmates their money - then I proceeded to contact every member of the Class, tell them what I was doing, and asked them to respond if they were interested. For their part, Classmates doesn't make it easy. You can only send out 20 notes a day. It took 10 days to send out my first run of "Howdy's." Still, after all my invitations, a number of people did come back - probably 20 in all (out of about 200 invites). Now what? What do we do now? Well, I started the mess, I might as well continue to embarrass myself; so I put out a biography on the list and invited others to do so as well. Fellow classmate Mitch Graham came back with not only a Bio but a picture as well. Pictures! I never thought about that. Neat idea Mitch.
As people joined, talk turned towards the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Class graduation. Would we have a 25th reunion? Alas, it was too late to plan anything official and there was no structure in place for a reunion organizing committee. But there is now a growing group of class members in regular communications and I fully expect a 30th will be in the works. Each day, I check the Web for new classmates. When new ones show up, usually 2 to 6 a month, they get a note from me. I figure my chances of getting someone with a valid email address are better if I jump on them immediately. At this rate, we have now grown to over 50 members and there are a few others who don't choose to subscribe but they do know where we are. While that barely rates as 10% of the class, it's more of a communications link than we have had since we all walked out of Mt. Rainier 25 years ago. It can only grow.. You can find me at mwdink@eskimo.com or come on over to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mrhs76/ and check us out. And if you're a member of the Class of '76, join us and... Welcome to MRHS76.
SCHOOL BOND VOTE ON MARCH 12
Mount Rainier High School would be almost completely rebuilt if the Highline School Construction Bond passes on March 12. If approved by voters, the bond would allow the school district to replace the district's 8 most deteriorated school buildings, including MRHS, renovate two schools and make critical safety improvements to Memorial Field.
On the September 2001 ballot, the bond got a 59.4% YES vote, just 149 votes short of the 60% necessary for approval. Your vote is critical. Please vote on March 12.
For more information, visit http://www.supporthighlineschools.com/.
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