The Falcon Legacy

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

ISD Help for

Homeless Students

Report

2

WDS Bowling

Fundraiser Report

4

January Board

Meeting Report

5

Events Calendar

Days of Yore

6

P U B L I C A T I O N O F T H E

V A N H O R N H I G H S C H O O L

A L U M N I A S S O C I A T I O N

The Falcon Legacy S P R I N G 2 0 1 3 V O L U M E I I I , I S S U E I

A Message From Our President Dear Fellow Van Horn Falcon,

Van Horn Stages presents its student production of Rodgers and Hammer-

stein's The Sound of Music Thursday, Friday, and Saturday--February 28th,

and March 1-2 -- in the Van Horn auditorium. Showtime is 7:00 p.m. each

night, with admission charged at the door. ($6/Adults, $4/Students, and $2/

Seniors)

Though Van Horn resumed staging student musicals (following a two-decade

absence) upon its joining the Independence School District in 2008, this pro-

duction represents a major step forward at the "new" Van Horn, as perform-

ers include a full student chorus and pit orchestra.

Van Horn invites anyone who was in the cast of the 1960's Fal-

con performance of Sound of Music to join the 2013 cast on stage for a special

finale at the Saturday performance. Falcon alums are also strongly encour-

aged to attend that final night, as we'd like to "pack the house" on Saturday.

For information on The Sound of Music, contact Van Horn's Netty Doyle at

netty_doyle@isdschools.org or Erin Barrier at erin_barrier@isdschools.org.

***

For the second consecutive year, Van Horn Falcons baseball is scheduled to

play a game--this time versus William Chrisman's Bears--at Kauffman Sta-

dium, home of the Kansas City Royals, on Tuesday, March 26, at 4:00

p.m. However, for that to happen, our help is needed.

How do we help? By purchasing special ticket vouchers. They are redeem-

able at Kauffman Stadium ticket windows for any of 72 of 81 regular season

home games (not good for Home Opener, Cardinals, Yankees, or Red Sox,

but good for all other home games!) in 2013 from Van Horn baseball (to play

at the “K”).

Prices per voucher are:

$17.00 each for Field Box seats (a 56% savings off regular $39.00 ticket price)

$10.00 each for Hy-Vee Outfield seats (28% savings off regular $14.00 price)

(Continued on page 5)

2 The Falcon Legacy

VH ALUMNI RAISE FUNDS FOR HOMELESS

STUDENTS IN INDEPENDENCE

Van Horn Alumni were well represented at the Inde-

pendence School District (ISD) Alumni Association

fundraiser held November 10, 2012 - a benefit for the

homeless students in the district. Brenda (Roe) Cox

(VH ’77) one of the organizers of the fundraising

event, not only spent endless hours obtaining dona-

tions, arranging the show, and getting the VHHS

ROTC and National Honor Society students involved

in the event, she could be found holding a spatula over

the cook stove at the breakfast. In the weeks before,

Betty Jane (Nichols) Stinnett (VH ’64) beat the side-

walks of Englewood selling tickets and hanging post-

ers in local businesses. Glenda (Baker) Phillips

(VH’73) sold tickets and labored away throughout the

day making sure no dirty dish was overlooked.

"We raised about $1500.00, some of that went di-

rectly to Tabitha's closet and the remaining

amount went to the foundation to be used only for

the homeless students. We had about 87 for break-

fast, about 40 for lunch, and about 20 for dinner.

In addition, a couple separate checks amounting to

$257.00 went directly to the foundation", reports

Brenda Cox.

Betty Snapp (WCHS alumni) helped raise nearly

$800 for the cause. After the event, her brother made

a $200 donation directly to the ISD Foundation.

A lady traveling the country saw a poster in a store up

by the Square and contacted Brenda. The lady was

going to every state in the Union on her 57th birthday

year donating to one worthy cause in each. Her check

for $57 went to the Foundation.

The evening entertainers, Jamin’ Jan on the keyboard,

Tony (Raytown) on a second keyboard and Doug on

the drums put on one smokin’ hot show to cap off the

evening. Cash donations in their tip jar amounting to

$127 were donated to Tabitha's Closet.

ISD Alumni Association's 50/50 raffle generated $100

yielding $50 to the ISD Alumni Assn petty cash oper-

ating fund.

The cash box was a different story. For November 10,

2012, Van Horn Alumni had gross receipts/revenue of

$1751.02. Expenses totaled $438. Total cash and

checks delivered to the ISD Foundation was $1313.02

and seven bags of clothing were taken to Tabitha's

Closet.

As of January 21, AutoTek will become a ticket

outlet for ISD Alumni Association events. 537 E 24

Hwy, (about two blocks east of Noland on US

24.) In the Van Horn area - we are hoping that we

can get a business to sell event tickets.

Above: Student and Van Horn Alumni volunteers

3 The Falcon Legacy

The following graciously

supported the ISD Alumni

Association's November 10,

2012 Fundraiser For Home-

less Students Event:

Commercial Donors

54th Street

Barnes and Noble

Burger King Woods

Chapel

Burger King Belton

Chili's

Corner Cafe

Costco

Hardees 291 Store

Hy-Vee

The Independence Mav-

ericks

Krispy Kreme

Price Chopper M-291

Store

Ryan's

Salty Iguana

Sam's Club

Sav-A-Lot

Shocking Prices

Sunfresh 23rd Street

Target

Wal-Mart

Wendy's 291 Store

Wendy's Noland Road

Store

Williams Foods

Individual Donors

Brenda Gfeller

Bud Ahnefeld

Chris Rounds

Mayor Don and Jo

Marie Reimal

Frank Passantino

Marilyn Ahnefeld

Mary Oliver

The Clarks

The Oshels

The Croziers

The Snapps

Uni t ed M eth od i s t

Women’s Group

Vera Cothern

In-kind Donors

AutoTek

Brenda Cox

Commerce Bank (On

Osage near Square)

Dee Hellerich

L.I.N.C.

Mary Oliver

Paul Savage

Thriftway on Crysler

VHHS ROTC and Stu-

dent Council

WCHS ACE students

The next Van Horn Alumni lead event on March 23rd will be a Mystery Who Done It Show! Watch www.Homeless-Students.com for details. This should

truly be a fun event! (subject to change)

Future ISD Alumni Assn events:

Feb 2 - breakfast and dinner show featuring Bill

Smyth and Robin Blubaugh

Feb 9 - drive-thru donation collection day at

AutoTek parking lot, 9 am - noon

Mar 9 - drive thru donation collection day at

AutoTek parking lot, 9 am - noon

Mar 23 - breakfast and Mystery Who Done It

show.

Additional information available at

www.Homeless-Students.com

Van Horn High School’s “National Honor Society Ca-

Enjoying the lunch: Janice Jefferies Brooks, Helen

May Gaylon, Ginny Gross Turk, Don Pierce, Janey

Williamson Pierce, Donna Littau Shafer, Betty Jane

Nichols Stinnett, and Phyllis Sajben.

4 The Falcon Legacy

THE SEVENTH ANNUAL WDS BOWLING FUNDRAISER

The WDS Educational Foundation held their annual bowling fundraiser on January

19th at the Strike and Spare Bowl in Independence. There were over 160 partici-

pants and all seemed to have a good time while helping to raise funds for future

scholarships. A total of $5,500 was raised from the bowling tournament and raffle

with the highlight being an additional

$1,000 donated by the Van Horn Class

of 1970.

The evening started with free beer

sponsored by some WDS board mem-

bers for those who arrived early. The bowling itself included

both men's and women's bowling prizes and a team prize. The

winners received gift certificates donated by local mer-

chants. There were at least 30 Van Horn alumni present with

several groups of Van Horn women demonstrating their home-

making skills by "donating" some jello shots and pudding shots

to the group. Needless to say, those Van Horn women know

how to have a good time.

WDS awarded over $25,000 in scholarships in 2012 with the

majority going to Van Horn students. Thanks to fundraisers

like this along with the support of so many Van Horn alumni,

WDS hopes to award at least as much again this year.

The next opportunity to support WDS in their efforts is the an-

nual golf tournament being held on Friday, August 2, at Drumm

Farm Golf Club. Hope you can join us this year. Information

about WDS can be found at the website www.wdsef.org.

Checking in at Strike‘n’Spare Lanes

Above: WDS Team #4

___________________________________________

Below: Jello Shots team: Patty Smitka-Hacker,

Robbi Wait, Jayne “Powell” Doyle, Jean “Novak”

Kaiser, and Jo Marie Miller.

Above: Members from the Van Horn Class of 1970 presenting

a check for $1,000 to WDS. The money was raised at a 60th

birthday party and golf outing organized last summer. Left to

right: Terry Smitka, Steve Woolf, Janis Jackson, Deidre

(Jones) Chasteen, Debbie (LaFountain) Riffle, and Kenny

Farmer. WDS will award one or two "Class of 1970" schol-

arships to Van Horn students with the money.

5 The Falcon Legacy

JANUARY MEETING NEWS Gleanings from the VHHSAA By-Laws:

Purpose

The Van Horn High School Alumni Association’s

purposes are:

To help fund selected capital improvement

purchases for Van Horn High School (hereafter re-

ferred to as VHHS)

To fund scholarships for VHHS graduates

To establish and maintain a world-wide net-

work of VHHS graduates

To establish a Hall of Honor of prominent

VHHS graduates, Faculty, Staff, and “Friends of Van

Horn” for the benefit of VHHS

The meeting on January 16 had a delayed start. The

members attending waited outside in the cold for 20

minutes until we reached someone to open the

locked doors! Those in attendance were: Jay

Fisher, President; Nancy Ehrlich, V-Pres.; Lisa

Renshaw, Treas.; Marietta Boenker, At-Large;

David Renshaw and Glenda Phillips. (The posi-

tion of Secretary is vacant at this time).

The annual membership application from Joyce E.

Fults-Dalzell (‘58) was received and accepted.

The Association didn’t buy any tickets to give to stu-

dents for the Dec. 22nd I-Town Showdown as a

snow-day was called on that day.

The Board voted to buy 6 Royals game vouchers

($103) to donate to the Raffle of the WDS Bowling

Fundraiser. The vouchers help the VHHS Baseball

Team win the right to play at Kauffman Stadium in

the spring.

The Board voted to buy 10 electric skillets ($250)

for the Harvester’s Teen Cooking Class for students.

This is a pilot program through Harvesters that will

be run by the Van Horn Parent-Teachers-Student

Association (PTSA). All recipes will be taught on

an electric skillet which will be given to any of the

students completing all classes. Many of these stu-

dents are the meals preparer for themselves and sib-

lings.

Discussion was held on Hall of Honor nominees for

the 2013 Honors. Several teachers were mentioned.

(Editor’s note: Please think about all of those you

have seen at reunions, etc. and pick a good one to

nominate to the Hall of Honor. The application can

be located on our website at vanhornalumni.org

Complete your portion at the end right there on line,

then forward to your nominee to complete. It’s so

easy! )

(“President” from page 1)

You can buy your Royals vouchers at the Van

Horn front office (1109 South Arlington in Inde-

pendence--ask for Sherry Stark, or call Sherry at

Van Horn's main number, (816) 521-5360), from

Falcons Head Coach Tim Wilson ((816) 682-2156),

or from any Falcons baseball player.

***

February's Alumni Association meeting will take

place this coming Wednesday, February 20, 7:00

p.m., at the school. All Members and their guests

are invited to come! As always, please enter the

building through the main (front) entrance, facing

Arlington Avenue.

This time, we'll begin the process of selecting

our scholarship awardee from the Class of 2013.

Upcoming "Third Wednesdays" at Van

Horn: March 20, April 17, and May 15--all at 7:00

p.m.

Jay Fisher, VH '75

President

6 The Falcon Legacy

Does anyone recognize this site? Clue: it is

not in Independence but just about every

teenager visited it at some time.

Submit your answers to VHHSAA@yahoo.com

ATTENTION ANNUAL MEMBERS

DUES FOR 2012

ARE DUE

Before JULY 1, 2013

Please remit your annual dues of $25 to:

VHHSAA, P.O. Box 520712

Independence, MO 64052

Our fiscal year begins July 1 of each year. If you

have not paid your annual dues for 2011-12, you

may send them in one check for both years marking

in the memo space that you are paying for 2011-

2013. Members not in good standing will be dropped

from membership. Having trouble remembering to

pay your dues? Become a Life-time Member and pay

just a one-time $250 membership.

VHHSAA meets the 3rd Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.

every month except December. For locations, please

review sites on calendar above.

From Days of Yore

The Van Horn High School

Alumni Association

Events Calendar

28 Feb-2 Mar— Sound of Music as presented by the

Van Horn Music Department. See page 1.

9 Mar - ISD Alumni drive-thru collection day at

AutoTek parking lot, 9-noon

20 Mar—VHHSAA meeting, 7:00 pm

Alumni Room at school

23 Mar—Breakfast and Mystery “Who Done It’

Dinner Show www.Homeless-Students.com

17 Apr—VHHSAA meeting, 7:00 pm

Alumni Room at school

2 Aug —WDS Golf at Drumm Farm Golf Club

P.O. Box 520172, Independence, MO 64052

Phone: 816-914-6490 (Jay Fisher)

E-mail: VHHSAA@yahoo.com

VHHSAA Board Members

President Jay Fisher (VH‘75)

Vice President Nancy Mills Ehrlich (VH‘56)

Secretary Vacant

Treasurer Lisa Hay Renshaw (VH‘76)

At-Large Dir. Marietta Wilson Boenker

(VH‘60)

To submit articles, news or comments to the

Falcon Legacy, write to VHHSAA@yahoo.com

Answer from last issue: Shaffer’s Drive-In (no takers)