Message From The Alumni President

Dear Alumni,

This letter is being written just a few days following a very successful reunion. Alumnus from all across the USA maxed out the Ambassador Hotel and filled the Heritage room at the Civic Center. What a great time we had seeing friends, enjoying great food and finishing up with a beautiful banquet and dance on Saturday evening.

We'll get to do it all over again in 2009 so make plans now to be there.

All Sandies, past and present, owe a big debt of gratitude to our immediate past president, Ken Kohler.

Thanks to Ken and his ability to pull people together, the Alumni Association has excelled in multiple ways. Our contributions to the Amarillo College Foundation now total $72,000, which allows us to award 6 or 7 $500 scholarships each year to worthy AHs graduates.

Also, Ken's work with Amarillo High personnel has drawn needed attention to their art collection. This produced an appraisal showing the paintings to be one of the best high school collections in the nation and it was started by AHs Principal, R. B. Norman.

Gary Biggers '64, Humanities teacher at AHs noted that there were several pieces needing restoration. These restorations are well under way. Also, some paintings were in bad locations in hallways and these have been relocated in beautiful new secure display cabinets. Doug Loomis, AHs Principal, has plans to build more cabinets for display of the collection. If you are interested, a CD is available previewing the collection. Cost is $5.00 here in Amarillo, $6.25 if mailed.

I hope you purchased one of the 2006 Alumni Directories. This beautiful directory is bound in black and gold and holds a treasure of history about AHS and information on tens of thousands of AHs grads from all classes. Ken Kohler spent countless hours working with the publisher and officers of the Alumni Association to make sure the book was first class. All of these books have been sold.

The membership of the Alumni Association has grown to 1,840. When you consider that the membership totaled 1.100 just 3 years back this is astounding. A great deal of credit goes to the popularity of the "Sandie Spirit". This "missile of love" is published 6 times a year by Ken Kohler. I enjoy meeting with a happy group at Ken's home to stuff the "Spirit" in envelopes and send it off to eager recipients who read it cover to cover.

Keep up the good work. Alumni from all classes work hard to keep the memories of Ole AHS alive for all of us. A lot of folks are drawn to the Association by current members. Encourage fellow classmates to join the Association and share the benefits you enjoy.

Sincerely,

Bob Damon (53), President
AHS50th Alumni Association