Holton alumni getting head start on this year's reunion activities

Last year, the Holton High School Alumni Association decided to step things up a bit with the annual alumni banquet, and as Linda Clements of the alumni association noted, the 2023 banquet was a hit — particularly at a time when attendance at previous banquets had been declining.

“I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback from people, just when I’m out and about in Holton,” said Clements, a 1982 graduate of HHS. “People come up to me and say they appreciate us taking this up and infusing some new life into it. They don’t want to see it go, and they like what they’re seeing.”

This year, the alumni association is getting a head start on preparing for this year’s banquet, set for Saturday, May 25 at the Northeast Kansas Heritage Complex’s Heritage Hall, and Clements said the association is hoping to make this year’s event bigger and better than last year.

“We’re not waiting until the last minute like we’ve had to do the last few years,” Clements said. “I want to start getting the word out about outstanding alumni, nominees and things like that.”

The annual HHS alumni celebration — held in conjunction with Glory Days activities over the Memorial Day holiday weekend — will also include the annual alumni parade around Holton’s Town Square at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 25, and Clements said that while five-year classes are invited to participate, so are any other classes of HHS alumni.

“I had a class that had so much fun last year, especially with the parade, and they told me, ‘We just want to have a float every year.’ And I said, ‘It’s an alumni parade, so you can. It doesn’t have to be certain honored classes.’ It excites me that people are thinking of these things and they want to do these things,” Clements said.

Getting an early start on this year’s alumni activities also means that nominations for the HHS Alumnus of the Year award are also being sought early, Clements said, noting that the deadline for this year’s award is Saturday, March 30. Nominations are also being sought for an award for favorite teachers and administrators, she added.

For more on this story, please log in to your holtonrecorder.net account and select “Jan. 31, 2024” under “E-Editions.”