As hard as it was to say good-bye to Washington, it truly was a marvelous sight to see "Vernonia Schools". Although construction is far from finished, you can see the amazing structure, with a beautiful backdrop of the Oregon sky behind. The entrance to the building is on the far right. The windows above the entrance are the library windows, and the yellow box protruding from the library is a enclosed glass reading room with a window seat looking outside. We didn't get to go through the library as all of upstairs was barricaded with caution tape. However, Ronda gave us the description of the library. (Picture taken as soon as I stepped out of Kathi's vehicle)
Classes are separated by lower level K-6th grade, and 7th-12th the upper level. The new school has 2 gymnasiums. One small (in which looked pretty big to me) and the other HUMONGOUS! The larger gym is large enough to fit two full size basketball courts (pictured below).
The smaller gym (grade school gym) is being finished first with the old VHS gym flooring, so all grades will have a gym to use when school starts this fall. The high school gym (the larger of the two) won't be completed before the 2012-13 school year begins. All classes will use the grade school gym until the high school one is completed. We were getting excited about the future use of the gyms...great potential for future tournaments, and that would mean more revenue for Vernonia!!
The commons, where the students will eat their lunch, is a multipurpose area that also will be used for theater/drama and a gathering place. It's quite spacious among having a fantastic view to a beautiful outside area. Also there is a covered play area for those rainy days.
A better look of the outside play area looking out from the commons.
The classrooms were roomy, light and had nice views...perhaps too good of a view for those day-dreamers that have a hard time consentrating as it is.
Saying good-bye to the new Vernonia Schools (until we meet again next August)!
Now it was time for business and Kathi, Deborah, Norm (Norm's wife), Marsha and I went back to the Old Mill House Inn and gathered around the patio table on the deck. Ideas began to fly. Kathi did most of the leg work to get the "Give Back Reunion" idea started. We think we (class of 1973) have a very good chance of pulling this off as a successful fundraiser for the Vernonia Schools next August. So exciting!!!
Norm and his wife had to leave and we decided to go back to the "Fuel House" and play, I mean try some songs we had practiced. When we arrived, there were two young men at the end of the building just outside one of the doors. They seemed curious as to why 4 women of our age, with the same shirts on, were inside the abandoned, tagged fuel house. They came in and right away started a conversation with us, asking why we were there. Come to find out, one of the young men was a music major and also was a photographer and he was more than happy to video tape our song. Think about it...we have not sung these songs together since high school and practiced just a couple of times.
Click on the link below to see the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umnq8i0pJfs&feature=em-share_video_user
here is another video...kind of fun!
http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=4bc2a9068c21180f&sid=9EYuWTJu1UU3g
Our last evening together was relaxing...ate some dessert (M&Ms and ice-cream & stawberries)...watched some home movies and chatted. BUT, not like the old days. We are much older now, and our bedtime was before mid-night.
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