Adna High Celebrates Centennial

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High School class reunions are a common summertime event.

But a reunion of every class for the past 100 years such as the one being held July 21 in Adna is a rare event. In fact, said Adna High School class of 1961 graduate Linda Stewart, most schools probably wouldn’t attempt such an event because finding a venue large enough would prove difficult.

But not in Adna. In all, it is estimated that 3,000 total graduates have received diplomas there in the past 100 years.

“I really feel like a reunion like this is really unique to a town like Adna,” Stewart said. “We are a small school and we always have been. It creates a camaraderie between our graduates that’s unmatched by any other school.”

The effort to celebrate the high school centennial began a year ago with a group of about eight Adna graduates, mostly from the 1950s and 1960s. Many had been involved with or attended a previous all-graduate reunion in 1992 to celebrate the completion of the current high school building. Before then, students had attended a brick school “up on the hill” that has since been demolished, explained Linda Moon, of the Adna High School class of 1968. The current school is often described as “down in the valley.” 

“People still refer to it as the new school, even though it’s relatively old, because to us it’s pretty new,” Moon said.

Moon and her three siblings all graduated from Adna. Her daughter is also an Adna graduate and is now a teacher there and her grandson just graduated from the school. She said there are many families like hers with multiple generations, including one family that can count five generations who have graduated from Adna and several who have four generation of Pirate alums. Many of these families still remain actively involved in the close-knit community and school district.

“You start reading the history of the high school and the kids change, but the names don’t,” Moon said. “There are people out in this area who have lived here a long time.”

There have been schools and students attending them in the Adna area in excess of 100 years. But Adna High School counts its first official graduating class as 1918, counting just two men: Bernard Flinn and Loyst Caverly. Moon explained that 1918 was the first year there was a 4-year accredited high school program offered in Adna.



“Before that it was all country schools and they’d go up to 8th grade or 10th grade or something like that,” Moon explained. 

The centennial celebration effort has been helped by local historian Lois Keen, who has been working the past year to put together a history of Adna. Keen said the book, which is being published through Gorham Printing of Centralia, will hopefully be completed in time for the July 21 event. 

“I just kept waiting for someone else to write a book. Napavine has a book, Pe Ell has a book, the granges have a book, Adna is the only area that doesn’t have a book,” Keen said of the project. “It’s a humongous job.” 

Still, even in a close-knit community, Moon said she knows they have not reached everyone. About 300 people have registered online for the event. Registration for the all-class reunion is $10 online or $15 at the door and all proceeds will benefit the Adna Scholarship Foundation. Moon said she has encountered several people who thought the event was invitation-only, rather than open to anyone who wants to attend. And some graduates’ whereabouts are not known, so she’s hoping the information will reach them so they can attend and the community can reconnect with them.

“You’d think with the Internet it would be easier to look people up, but it isn’t,” Moon said.

The eventis open to anyone who wants to attend, but organizers are looking specifically for Adna High School graduates and former and current school district employees. Beginning at 11 a.m. on July 21, the high school building and grounds will be open and coffee and dessert will be served. It will be a time for attendees to visit and share memories with one another. A barbecue lunch will be served for $7 a person. At 4:30 p.m., there will be a program with a presentation of photos of Adna from the last 100 years.

One highlight of the gathering will be a memory wall, where attendees can bring photos of high school memories to share as well as a memorial area where those who have passed can be remembered. In particular, organizers are hoping that someone out there may have a photo of Bernard Flinn and Loyst Caverly. Stewart explained that when the committee began planning for the event, very little was known of those first two Adna High School graduates. Through a local genealogy researcher, they were able to learn much about the two, including where they attended college, who they married, their careers and even were able to find one of their graves at Claquato Cemetery. But so far, they have been unsuccessful in finding photos of the two.

“There’s no photos of them. There’s nothing on the wall (of the high school),” Stewart said. “We have pictures of every other graduating class but not those first two.”