Mt. Vernon Register-News

Local

May 27, 2008

Waltonville alumni dance planned

By KANDACE MCCOY

kandace.mccoy@register-news.com

WALTONVILLE — Even though members of the Waltonville Alumni Association are concerned that interest has been dwindling in its organization, the association is continuing with its tradition of holding its annual Alumni Association Dance.

According to information from association member DiAnn Fowler, the Waltonville Alumni Association Dance has been a tradition on the second Saturday in June, dating back at least 80 years. Since individual classes were small in that community, rather than hold individual class reunions, the association held a yearly school reunion.

Though the dance was held at the Mt. Vernon Amvets for many years, attendance during the 1970s and ’80s increased to a degree that the association moved the annual reunion and dance to the KC Hall in Du Bois, with more than 300 people attending. Twenty years later, attendance “hit an all-time low,” Fowler said. Last year, due to scheduling conflicts and the lack of interest, the dance was relocated back to the Amvets last year.

“Years ago, it was a big thing with a big crowd. But over the years, the crowd has dwindled, and now the money is not there to do things we’d like to do,” Fowler remarked.

The Waltonville Alumni Association donates $500 in scholarship money each year to a Waltonville High School graduating senior who writes a winning essay about his or her college or trade school plans and how the scholarship money would benefit him or her. The association also tries to help Waltonville schools with their needs as well as help the community.

“The last few years we have been working on getting interest and attendance back,” Fowler said. “If we can achieve this, we hope in the future to increase the amount of the scholarship. If the funds would be available, it would be nice to help the school in some way.”

The Waltonville Alumni Association Annual Dance will be held June 14 at the Mt. Vernon Amvets. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. with music and entertainment beginning at 8 p.m.

Admission is $15 per person or $20 per couple. There is a Special Millennia Discount of $5 a person for those who graduated during the years 2003-2007. Free hors d’oeuvres, door prizes and a 50/50 drawing will also be available that evening. There will be a business meeting a 9 p.m. followed by the Scholarship and Alumni of the Year awards.

For more information, contact Fowler at 214-8138 or Jill Nordin at 242-9500.

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