Hello Fellow Riversiders!
Welcome back to the On-Line Log. It’s been a while since we’ve had a new edition of this, so you will find a lot of new and interesting material.
Our website and social media pages have been dormant for a while as we lost our technical resource. But boy, did we get lucky in that department. First a ’68 grad of Riverside, Karen Holp, moved back to town from Oklahoma, of all places. Turns out she has wonderful computer skills, and, with a little nudge from Connie Stokes, she dove into our bits and bytes. The next thing we knew she emerged from the web of url’s, http’s and html’s with a set of updated software, new graphics and renewed event pages.
At the same time, Eric Lakia, a 2018 Hall of Fame inductee and 2003 grad, joined our board of trustees. He has brought much needed energy and a knowledge of the social media world. Our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages are being fed by Eric with articles, retweets (first time I’ve ever typed that word!) and photos. Elsewhere in the log you will see some notes on what specifically is new. We hope you find all of this useful and enlightening. If there is something you’d like to see in any of those areas, please let us know.
The latest big event we supported was the 18th running of the Harvey-Riverside Duck Race. The 2019 Duck Race $500 winner was Marg Barb, a long-time teacher in the system, now retired.
This year presented us with several challenges. First, it was way too hot during the Party in the Park, and our sales suffered due to a lower attendance. Second and most importantly, the Riverside/Harvey football game was not played this year. This was traditionally our biggest single sales event. Finally, our intake from sponsors was way down. As a result, the RHS net from the event was $4,300, down from $6,700 last year. While that sounds disappointing, this year was actually the sixth best of all-time.
The purpose of the Duck Race is to fund the scholarships that both schools give out at commencement. So, considering that we give four $1,000 awards, even in a down year we covered our output. We have some thoughts about how to get back on track next year and would be interested in any ideas you may have.
Our next big event is the Hall of Fame dinner on October 19 at which we will be inducting six new members. You can find out more about that elsewhere on the web site.
We want you involved with the RHS Alumni Association. Click here – Contact Us – to make comments, send suggestions or volunteer to help. If you are not a member of the association – it’s just $25 for a lifetime membership – click here to download the membership application. And if you are not on our Newsletter email list, click here to join.
Best Regards,
Tom Trombley
RHS Alumni Association president