GREENVILLE – After a five-year hiatus, there will be another reunion at the former Washington Elementary School, which was located at 7511 Palestine Road, west of Coletown, now the home of Emmaus New Testament Church.
“This will be for students, staff, friends, families and anyone else who is interested from 2 to 4 p.m. Nov. 3,” announced Connie Foureman Stollar, who is organizing the event once again. “They can bring any old pictures or memorabilia they may have.”
The school’s doors closed in 1981.
At the last reunion in 2019, tours were led through the building by Jim Leonard, pastor of the church. It was noted that people arrived with photos, news articles, yearbooks and notebooks to share with the others, making it even more of a nostalgic event.
Various conversations could be heard among the groups that assembled then and those in attendance will undoubtedly experience the same thing on Nov. 3.
At that event, the guests included former bus drivers, cooks and aides as well as quite a number of former students.
At that reunion, Debbie Grimes Glunt stopped by to let some people know that kindergarten started at Washington School in 1973.
“We could ride our bikes to school and that was a big deal then,” the 52-year-old who then lived on New Madison-Coletown Road. “Our class was the first to go to North School. There was no sixth grade here then.”
Esther Rogers was escorted to the reunion five years ago by her son, Leon Rogers; daughters, Marlene and Sharon; and Sharon’s husband Tom.
“Mom made the turkey suppers for many years here,” recalled Marlene. “It was in the cafeteria at the school. Working in the cafeteria were Mrs. Bright and Mrs. Ganger.”
Esther, it was noted, was glad her children had the opportunity to go to school there.
“My husband, Earl, and I arranged everything at those turkey suppers,” the then 90-year-old Esther commented in 2019. “He’s been gone 35 years. We made more than 20 turkeys each time. The turkeys were made at home and the side dishes were made at the school. We formed committees for every food item and we helped serve the dinner.”
It was pointed out, that at one time, there were 20-some students in the mile on Wagner Road between New Madison-Coletown and past Fisher-Dangler.
And, the Rogers family is planning on returning this year.
At the last reunion, former bus driver, Vickie Martin, said there were four buses when she started driving in 1972. Other bus drivers she remembers were the late Ray Caupp, Charlotte Brown and Vera Warren as well as Pat Kester.
According to Stollar, Leonard subsequently purchased the school and it features a Christian Learning Center Tuesday through Thursday and the BCE Academy, a home-school book store that supplies and ships materials for Christian schooling worldwide.
“Yes it has been five years for the reunion, so I guess we will stay on an every-five-year plan,” Stollar said.