Category: Alumni Spotlight

30+ Years of Riverside Alumni Band Tradition

Frank Vaccariello

While the memories are getting fuzzy, it was around 1990 or 1991 when two Riverside graduates met at a kitchen table in an apartment on Newell Street to discuss the idea of forming the Riverside High School Alumni Band. That kitchen belonged to future RHS Hall of Fame inductee Mike Vaccariello (RHS ‘83), whose idea has now stretched to over 30 years of graduates coming back each homecoming game to join the Riverside Regiment. Mike had attended a Harvey vs. Riverside game at Painesville Recreation Field and noticed that the…

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Search and Rescue Dogs Serve Community, Part II

Staff

Guest Author: Debbie Sorber Rosch, ’80 (Hall of Fame 2019 In our previous episode, we ended with a cliffhanger. John Swaney and his search dog, Hogan, of Burning River K9 Search and Rescue, were in the final moments of their certification test search. They had already searched most of their 50-acre assignment at Gretchen Reed’s Pheasant Run Airport, with only a tiny area of the sector remaining to be searched and nine minutes to find their subject before time ran out. Despite both handler and K9 feeling fatigue and frustration,…

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Upcycling as a Lifestyle (With Emphasis on Style)

Staff

When most people subscribe to recycling and reusing as environmental goals, bins taken to a recycling center are part of their efforts. Bob and Tam (Walrath) Polzer have practiced thinking BIG about recycling during their renovation of two homes since their marriage in 1986. The ’78 graduates first purchased a rundown, unkempt house on Rockwood Drive in Painesville in ’86. Before any remodeling could begin, they unloaded enough trash to fill two 10-yard dumpsters. A most unpleasant task came with realizing the home had been inhabited by heavy smokers and…

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Wolf Family: Three Generations of RHS Grads

Staff

How often does a high school have three generations of one family, all remaining as loyal alumni, graduate from its halls? Robert (Bob) and Jacqueline (Jacquie) Wolf, who celebrated 64 years of marriage on August 2, have two sons, a daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren whose successful careers and dedication to RHS make them stellar alumni as they follow in the values their mother and father have held dear. Although Bob graduated from North High School in Columbus, his loyalty and service to the Riverside community have paralleled his wife’s, especially…

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Search and Rescue Dogs Serve Community Part 1

Staff

Guest Author: Debbie Sorber Rosch ’80 (Hall of Fame 2019) On a glorious Sunday morning in May 2022, several members of Burning River K9 Search and Rescue met at Pheasant Run Airport in Leroy, Ohio, to train search dogs. One of our teams, John Swaney and K9 Hogan, were also attempting to earn certification from the National Association of Search and Rescue (NASAR) in live find area search. Other team members would have different training objectives. Sheila Hullihen, RHS class of 1978, would be serving as Hogan’s search subject, hiding…

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The Unanticipated Career of a Firefighter and K9 Handler Part I: Gordon Thompson ’89

Karen Holp

Guest Author: Gordon Thompson ’89 I received a phone call at work from one of my favorite RHS teachers, Mrs. Gretchen Reed. Hearing her voice brought back many memories because of the times I spent with her and her family outside of school. How many teachers take you up in several of their airplanes…and let you jump out of them? I used to skydive with her brother-in-law and a few of her nephews. We were lucky enough to complete several jumps, out of some amazing airplanes, at her property in…

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Kyle McKee: Remembering a Man of Honor, Intergrity

Gretchen Reed

Heavy hearts were the norm as residents of the Riverside School District learned that a new brick would be added posthumously to honor a man in its Veterans’ Wall of Honor. Kyle McKee, Class of 2003, was killed in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt during a peace-keeping operation on Nov. 12, 2020. Kyle, 35, had been a staff sergeant and crewman on board a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter when it encountered mechanical problems that took the lives of four other Americans, a Frenchman and a Czech service member. All were…

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Three Generations of Cheerleaders at Homecoming: Sheri Dolan Sanders ’80

Karen Holp

Guest Author: Sheri Dolan Sanders ’80 As a 1980 RHS graduate, I have always enjoyed RHS Homecoming and seeing the alumni of the band, twirlers, dance team and cheerleaders come back for alumni night at the football game. My daughter Carly Sanders is a Riverside senior this year (class of 2020)  and she comes from a long line of RHS cheerleaders. I was a cheerleader in my day, and so was my mother, Judy Lukshaw Dolan, class of 1959. Last year, Carly asked if I would cheer with her for…

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Lifelong Friends Build Dream House

Frank Vaccariello

2007 was a good year for Josh Edgell and Mark Maltry. That year the lifelong friends realized a longtime dream to start up their own home construction and remodeling company. After graduating from the Construction/Remodeling/Repair programs at Auburn Career Center and Riverside High School in 2000, Maltry and Edgell worked for contractors in Lake and Geauga counties. Seven years of experience gave them enough confidence to venture out on their own. That’s when they formed JEMM Construction. 2008 was not a very good year for the housing industry. That year…

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What Do Alumni Beavers Do Best?

Loretta Vandervort

Once a BEAVER, always a BEAVER. What happens when beavers build their homes? They band together and build the strongest, most beautiful home on the river. The year 1984 proved that once an alumni Beaver sets his mind on building something, he and all his alumni Beavers band together to get the job done. That determination is the foundation for how a group of alumni parents, business owners, and teachers formed the Riverside Community Athletic Foundation (RCAF). Their goal was to spark the creation of a private partnership with area…

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