Page 32 - Fall 2019 Newsletter

Meet Your Board

Lauren Peabody Fitzpatrick ’86 - Founder/Past President/Class Rep
Compiled by Rachel Fitzpatrick ’93 from other past articles

After 20 years, I felt it was time to look back and reflect on where the Houlton High School Alumni Association (HHSAA) has come and think about
how we can continue into the future. To begin this new series of articles, which is to honor and thank a special group of individuals who have been, or are
currently, members of the HHSAA board, I thought it fitting to start with the Founder, Lauren Peabody Fitzpatrick ’86.
Lauren, a member of the class of 1986, received her teaching degree from the University of Maine at Orono and returned to Houlton where she has been
teaching elementary school aged students ever since. Lauren is a 3rd generation teacher, her mother, Mary Peabody ’62, and paternal grandmother, Ruth,
also taught in the Houlton school district. Lauren is also proud of the fact that all 4 four of her grandparents attended college, three went to Colby and
one went to Bates. This fact has influenced her life in many ways including when coming up with the idea for HHSAA and giving scholarships to continue
education.
As our story starts, Lauren was on her lawn mower during the summer of 1996 when the idea of creating an HHS alumni group started. Lauren’s first call
was to Nancy Ketch ’82 to share the idea of creating a group with two goals. The first goal was to keep alumni in touch with each other through a semi-
annual newsletter and the second goal to fundraise for HHS. The fundraising thought was for student scholarships to continue education and/or projects
for the high school, as the schools can only find funding for so much. Nancy and Lauren made phone calls and connected with people from different
classes, collecting addresses for alumni, and creating a class rep network to assist in the collection of news from different classes.
In July 1997, after collecting articles about the high school, several spotlight on alumni articles, and news from many different classes, the first Houlton
High School Alumni News was printed; 16 pages in length. A group of volunteers gathered at the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce building and
put together the first mailing of 4,000 newsletters for the HHSAA to begin to form. Initial request was for alumni to join the organization with only a $10
annual fee which would cover printing and mailing costs for a semi-annual newsletter. Any donations above and beyond would be used for HHS projects.
The board started with nine members including Lauren as President, Nancy as Secretary and Bruce Haggerty ’86 as Treasurer. Volunteers were numerous
and excited. Lauren recalls how she really was introduced to technology during this year and watching how quickly technology was changing. The database
started being entered into a program called Sidekick but is now in the Microsoft Access program which was not compatible with Sidekick so all the
addresses had to be entered again.
By the second newsletter, in November 1997, HHSAA had a membership of 750. Lauren’s third goal became to maintain a roll of 1,000 members and she
was well on her way to attaining that goal within the first year, as well as the original goal of a semi-annual newsletter. Now began the work of maintaining
those two goals and achieving the final goal of fundraising for HHS.
Lauren worked with others, including Nancy, to get the group incorporated as a non-profit organization. By May 1998, the front page of the newsletter
read “Generous Support from Alumni Results in $6,000 Gift to Houlton High School”. A board had been formed who set aside $4,000 to keep the
organization going and $2,000 was divided between library, athletics, music, technological advances and Dollars For Scholars. Dollars For Scholars ended
up with two $500 scholarships presented to graduating seniors for continuing education. By the fall, HHSAA pledged another $2,000 to go toward HHS
soccer field light project. The list of contributors who donated above & beyond their annual membership filled a page in the newsletter. A website was
being developed and the oldest member on the list was from the class of 1927. Lauren had met all her goals in less than a year and now came the most
difficult part, maintaining these goals and keeping the organization going.
In 1999, a Centennial Celebration for Houlton High’s 100th anniversary was being planned. This was a large endeavor for such a newly formed
organization, but Lauren and the board took on the challenge just like they had two years prior starting the organization. The Centennial Celebration in
July 2000 was such a big success, that it turned into a Multi-Class Reunion which happens every 5 years; 2005, 2010, 2015 and soon in 2020.
In 2001, an alumni member found an old ledger documenting an HHS alumni group having been formed that was active from 1901-1926. Lauren wasn’t
the first with the idea for this type of organization, but the question remained, how long would this HHSAA last? The last had only lasted twenty-five years.
In 2002, HHSAA celebrated five years of being active and consistently giving back to HHS with the oldest member from the class of 1924.
2002 was the fifth anniversary of HHSAA, what a milestone! This year, the board gained two members growing from 9 members to 11 members, and
began presenting scholarships at last chapel directly to HHS graduates to maximize scholarship dollars for Houlton graduates. This would be Lauren’s first
chance to speak publicly with the graduates & community directly to explain HHSAA and its goals.
This led to 2003 and the establishment of the HHSAA Endowment Fund with the goal to build that to $1 Million. The board grew again to 12 members
and created a Lifetime Membership where for a lump sum a newsletter would be sent to the member for life. HHSAA unveiled the group’s first website
and hosted the first annual social.
By 2004, the Endowment Fund had raised $80,000 and received approximately $470,000 from the Henry White ’27 Estate, establishing the first named
scholarship for HHSAA. Lauren had been president of the board through all of this, and with the support of her husband, Chris Fitzpatrick ’79 and two
children, Kelsey ’11 and James ‘13, Lauren decided to step back and let someone else take the president spot. Lauren continued to be active on the board
and assist with the newsletter as well as writing the news for her class as their rep. Lauren also helped with the organization of the Annual Fund through the
Fundraising/Planning Committee and Phone-a-thon activities.
Lauren stayed active with HHSAA even though she has stepped back to allow others to take on more of the responsibilities. Lauren continued to work
on the Fundraising Committee through 2009 and as Class Rep for the 1986 class. She has watched with pride as the scholarship awards each year have
increased and the Annual Fund grows along with the Endowment Fund. As a result of stepping back, Lauren became more family focused as her children
became more involved in sports and other activities before heading off to college, each in their own time. In 2011, the HHSAA board announced the
establishment of the “Lauren Peabody Fitzpatrick Founders Scholarship” with the first award going to Lauren’s daughter, Kelsey Fitzpatrick ‘11, for $500.
Two years later, son James received the second of these scholarships.
There is so much Lauren does, but Lauren is very humble, as I found out when I approached her regarding this article. Lauren didn’t want the spotlight
and tried to deflect my focus to other wonderful people, such as the current president Nancy Ketch ’82, who I told Lauren would be the second article to
be completed in this series. Then Lauren suggested an article be done on myself, but I reminded her this is the “Meet Your Board” series and that I was
not a member of the board, but a loyal volunteer and that series of articles would come later. I even went so far as to present her with a draft of the article
combining past articles to show her how close a final article was. Lauren finally agreed to help me finalize the article, but I found out Chris talked with her
about it. Thank you, Chris!
Lauren’s biggest concern for the future of HHSAA is to continue to try to get the younger grads engaged in the organization. One attempt to try and
engage the younger generation is the FaceBook page, but Lauren would love to hear suggestions for events the younger generations would like to participate
in. Lauren even went so far as to suggest a Holiday social at the Shiretown over the Christmas to New Year’s holiday to try to engage this generation while
home over the holidays, but the response to this suggestion was limited.. As a result, Lauren would ask anyone for their suggestions and for these class
members to think about being a rep for their class, if there isn’t one already. Lauren encourages anyone interested to get involved in any of the different
activities.
www.houltonalumni.com PAGE 32