The Association has welcomed three new members to our Board of Directors this fiscal year.

Dylan Young, Class of 2016. He joined our Scholarship Committee last year and is participating again this year. As an advisor at Oregon State University he brings a lot of great insight to the discussion from the perspective of someone who works with current college students. He is also well connected with his class and alumni from the mid-2010s.

Jim & Kate McIlwain, Class of 1974. Jim and Kate were pivotal members of the Centennial Committee and participated in nearly every single project in 2023. They were both active members of their class' reunion last year and helped make it a success. They are both hands-on volunteers willing to step into a variety of roles as needed.

As part of a broader effort to increase transparency and engagement with the Board's work, we created a Board of Directors Roster. This document includes the names and contact information of each board member, along with their current committee assignments. It will be reviewed and updated annually, with the next revision scheduled for July.

Email Newsletters

We have two new members of the Communications Committee who specifically help as “Newsletter Reviewers”: Jan Faraca (Class of 1958), and board member Annie Mueller (Class of 1979). They review a draft of each month's newsletter before it is sent and provide a variety of feedback.

As of the end of April we have sent eight newsletters this fiscal year (since July 2024), and will likely send two more before the end of June. While we rarely have unsubscribes, we have seen a lot of email addresses go out of commission in the past year and are now sitting at just over 1,500 subscribers. We've maintained a 35-40% open rate, which is pretty good for this type of marketing. The cadence of roughly once per month newsletters has been sustainable and we will continue with this in the coming year.

The current goal with every newsletter is to include some sort of information that meets each of the following criteria: supports current students, connects alumni, preserves school history, requests a donation to the RHSAA, and offers a volunteer opportunity.

Social Media

We have maintained our presence on Facebook and Instagram, this is where day-to-day news is shared as these are the easiest platforms to share updates frequently. Our Facebook audience and Instagram followers have both increased to about 1,500 people each, around 100 more on each platform since this time last year. On Instagram this increase in following is typically the current year's graduating class, finding us in the couple days after graduation.

Over the past year we have shared more school history on social media and have found these topics to be of interest to both alumni and current students. The collaboration with the History Committee on the “Mini School History” videos had a ton of positive support. The 12 videos garnered over 10,000 views on Instagram, 14,000 on Facebook, and a couple hundred on YouTube. Going forward we would like to share more history content.

Website

I update information on our website roughly once a month, primarily around events. As reported last year, large updates to the website are on hold right now as it will take a lot of time to re-do the code behind it since it is a bit difficult to work with at the moment. Once the Communications Committee has more members to help spread the workload, I plan to dedicate time to this task.

The committee meets bi-monthly and addresses all issues that are raised and must be handled before the next Board meeting. Issues the committee responds to include financial decisions such as small grant funding, support for committee projects, association planning, and a variety of other matters that must be dealt with in a timely manner. We typically meet at 6 PM on the 3rd Thursday of even-numbered months. Members can attend committee meetings via video or in-person.

This section details the RHSAA's support of student programs, special projects, and other grant recipients over the past year. In addition to direct financial contributions made by the association, it also includes projects where RHSAA facilitated donations from outside organizations and individuals. Some of these donations benefited students but did not go through RHSAA's bank account. Some contributions were monetary, while others involved donated goods such as sporting equipment. These efforts reflect our commitment to connecting resources with student needs in a variety of ways.

Group/Project	Award	Award Date
Track Team Nationals	$800	6/1/2024
Men's Basketball Tournaments	$4,000	6/26/2024
Baseball & Softball History	$630	7/1/2024
Dance Team	$250	7/2/2024
Leadership Class	$1,000	8/26/2024
Basketball Trophies	$200	9/2024
Music Department	$1,000	9/12/2024
Social Work Team (families in need)	$1,000	10/4/2024
Homecoming BBQ	$1,100	10/5/2024
Athletic History Cases	$8,560	10/2024
Track Trophies	$200	11/2024
Holiday Meals	$2,900	11-12/2024
Miss Black Teen (Heleen Red Bird)	$500	1/21/2025
Yearbook Ad	$250	1/24/2025
Mosaic Covers	$1,362	1/29/2025
Coach of the Year Plaques	$200	2/1/2025
Baseball Team (Helmets)	$500	2/6/2025
Muslim Student Association	$250	2/6/2025
Baseball Team (Baseballs)	$500	2/20/2025
Jasmin Reyes-Contreras (Study Abroad)	$625	2/24/2025
Wrestling Team	$1,000	2/24/2025
Girls Golf Team	$600	3/21/2025
Tennis Balls & Rackets	$700	4/1/2025
Senior Awards Ceremony	$500	4/18/2025
Veterans Memorial	$126	4/22/2025
Scholarships	$5,000	5/2025 (TBA)

This list represents $32,653 in support our organization has given towards the school, the student body, and our alumni.

Athletic History

New trophies and plaques were created to recognize recent athletic accomplishments. This includes state records set by Girls Track, PIL honors for Boys Basketball, and recognition for awards earned by coaches and the Athletic Director. We also partnered with Baseball and Softball to create outdoor banners to be displayed on the fields with the PIL and State Championship years for both teams.

Golf Tournament

Jeanine Sinnot attended the Booster's Annual Roosevelt Golf Tournament and hosted a table of RHS history. She researched the history of golf as a student sport and put together a notebook of information, and shared it with golfers at the tournament along with a host of other artifacts.

Gymnasium Display

New Trophy Cases were placed in the Gym Lobby, and we are starting to place trophies into those cases. The Cases were paid for through donations from the Class of 1974. All the installation was done through the Class of 1974, Jim Kennison, Jason Hutchison, Jim McIlwain, and Joe Duran Sr. We repaired the wall. We painted the wall. We installed the cases and placed molding around the cases to make the installation complete.

We are working with school staff on ideas for the empty wall space above this display and hope to move forward on this in the coming year.

Journalism Display

Janine Wolf has received the OK from Principal KD Parman to meet with the journalism classes to do some upgrades on their trophy cases. She met with CTE teacher, Tara Johnson-Medinger, to discuss a RHSAA journalism installation in one of her dedicated display cases. Took measurements and photos. In the process of designing the display, which will include early artifacts (hopefully a very cool, old typewriter) and newspapers.

"Mini School History" Video Series

Jeanine Sinnot worked with the Communications Committee to create short videos on school history topics. These videos were less than 3 minutes long and aimed and created to appeal to a wide audience from current students to our oldest alumni. There were twelve "episodes" published, and the intention is to continue this with new videos later in 2025.

Mosaics

New Plexiglas was ordered and installed over the 1950's mosaics. These are located above the gym on the second floor. Students had been drawing on them and picking them apart. We cleaned the mosaics. Then covers were installed, protecting against further damage. These were paid for by donations from the Class of 1958 and installed by the Class of 1974.

Newspaper Partnerships

Mark Kirshmeier of the North Peninsula Review occasionally asks for RHS history info, and we have recently shared football history and info/pics about Christmas and/or snow. Recently we told him that many RHS alumni have been St. Johns Parade Grand Marshals and Citizens of the Year (for their contributions to the community) over the years, including Terry Schurnk as the first and Rusty Nails (Jim Allen c/o 47).

Notable Alumni

Continuing on a project started about 15 years ago, Jeaning Sinnot has been researching the accomplishments and stories of RHS alumni. It has evolved from just careers to include stories. There isn't a goal for this information just yet, but the hope is to grow this to be a showcase of the many pathways our alumni have taken post graduation.

Rose Festival Princess Pictures

KD and Jim Kennison will have a meeting with the Leadership Classes to discuss the placement of the pictures back into the hallway on the second floor.

Yearbooks

Over a dozen yearbooks were collected this past year and we are no longer missing any copies. We are still short on several years and accepting donations of any unwanted books to add to our archive.

Thanksgiving

November 26th was our big Thanksgiving volunteer day, where we put together food boxes for RHS families in need. It is hard to describe how moving and rewarding the whole experience was, and how grateful we are for our community of alumni. Through donations we were able to put together supplies for families to have an entire meal, turkey included. We were also able to offer additional culturally relevant foods for families who put different items on their Thanksgiving tables. Volunteers put together all these kits in the morning, then in the afternoon helped distribute them both on-campus and by home delivery.

We had 20+ volunteers working in shifts to make it happen, all enthusiastic and excited to be able to offer this support to our community. Huge thank you to the Roosevelt Supporter Club parents in particular for partnering with us on this. We also must give kudos to the school's Social Work Team for working hard to identify families in need and coordinating with them.

Christmas

130 Roosevelt High School families fed just in time for the holidays.

Thursday, December 19th we joined the University of Portland and volunteers from other local organizations to put together meal kits as part of UP's big annual drive. Then Friday, December 20th we met on campus and put together even more kits with donations from the Sunshine Division along with cultural foods purchased through alumni donations. All of this was then distributed to families in need as identified by school staff. Friday evening was also the big gift drive for these families where they could pick and wrap gifts for their children for their holiday celebration.

Thanks to alumni donations, we were able to spend $3,000 to support both the Thanksgiving and Christmas projects. This was an incredible effort by our board, the Roosevelt Supporter Club, Peninsula Optimist Club, the RHS Social Work Team, community volunteers, and students. This was such a rewarding and impactful project, and we are proud we could play a role.

The 2024 picnic was a huge success with an estimated 300 attending. The majority stayed from 12 - 3pm, then most dispersed due to heat, and was the reason that many didn't attend. This year we tried fried chicken as the main entrée, and everyone seemed to enjoy the change. Barbara Lee Way developed a book with planning notes based on last year's result for future committees to use. Thank you Barbara! After many months of planning, we were able to simplify the tasks of planning and putting on the picnic. Many hands helped clean up at the end and the area was left clean, with people already discussing the next summer.

This year the committee is already hard at work planning the 2025 All Class Picnic. We currently have a committee of 5-7 people and will continue to meet over the next two months to nail down what is still needed and be sure we have all the supplies and help needed. Due to the large attendance in 2023, we have kept the additional site this year to help accommodate everyone. We will be asking for 'day of' volunteers to help make all the parts move smoothly. We are still looking for a photographer for the event, as the few possibilities that we have reached out to either haven't answered or were above our budget amount.

The 2025 All-Class Picnic will be held on July 19th at Columbia Park from 12 - 4pm.

Three Roosevelt alumni were inducted into the PIL Hall of Fame with the 2024 class:

• Paul Schmitt, Class of 1971
• Cameron Jackson, Class of 2008
• Semise Tonga Kofe, Class of 2014

The 2025 induction will be held on November 1st and the class will have two Roosevelt alumni:

• Livia Strandberg, Class of 2015
• Geoff Dilkes, Class of 1998

Our 2026 nominations have already been determined and we are now working on their applications:

• David Flint, Class of 1980
• Terrell Malley, Class of 2009
• Ellen Lougheed-Torchia, Class of 1975
• Eric Gustafson, Class of 1981
• David Burke, Class of 1980

Ellen Lougheed-Torchia, Eric Gustafson, and David Burke were nominated with the 2025 class and were very strong contenders, which is why we will be submitting them again.

We have been looking for people to help Eddie de Freitas with the nomination process and background searches for new nominations. Jim Kennison will continue to help Ed as he did this past year, and Kelley Cheney has agreed to also be a part of this team. Kelley is strong in research and organization and will be a great addition to this team.

Our nomination forms will be presented in a different format. We will make them concise and to the point. The information will be very clear. Jim was able to see the process at PPS when the nominations were presented and has a clear vision of what will need to be accomplished for future Hall of Famers. We get 5 nominations per year. This is equal to a few other schools in the PIL as we are one of the earliest schools in the PIL. 5 nominations is the top for any school. Some schools have fewer nominations, so we are in a great position to increase our inductees in the future.

Our mission is to get in front of the information by about a year. As you can see from our five nominations for 2026, most of the paperwork has been completed. Now we start asking for nominations for 2027 and start those searches immediately.

Athletic Director Willie Williams is also looking for information that we will need for future nominations. We've asked PPS to give us information on First Team, Second Team, Honorable Mention, and PIL Championships from 2010 to present. We do not have any of that information currently available to us.

As reported last year, we would like to establish a Roosevelt High School Athletic Hall of Fame that is separate from the PIL Hall of Fame. We need to establish how athletes will be inducted, set criteria, guidelines, etc. We will still submit candidates to the PIL, but also have our own program. Other schools in our league such as Wilson (Wells), Cleveland, and Grant have excellent HOF's, perhaps they can help with the "blueprint" for us. RHS staff, students, or alumni would be able to nominate by filling out an application similar to the PIL HOF application. We would like a committee under the RHSAA composed of 3-5 people who would go over candidates. Many details to be worked out, but this is a big goal to work towards.

The Class of 2024 Scholarship was awarded at the end of May 2024, just after our last report. We met the 5 winners before the Senior Awards Ceremony to give them their checks and offer our congratulations. Their bios were published in the North Peninsula Review and are available on the RHSAA website. The winners were:

• Aili Deibert
• Eleanor Weiner
• Finian O'Malley
• Hazel Levin
• Karter Green

The Class of 2025 Scholarship is just wrapping up review, and winners have been picked but not yet notified or announced. This year's voting committee consisted of board members Penny Luening, Steve Allen, Mike Reese, and Dylan Young, with new volunteer Dyllan Newville (Class of 2020), and moderated by Megan Hall. This year's application opened in late February and closed the first week of April, bringing in 37 total applicants. Each voting member spent two weeks reviewing the applications individually before we held two sessions together. There was quite a spread this year of favorites with many voting members preferring different candidates, which led to a lot of discussion. At the end of our second session all voting members were in favor of the five selected. They will be notified in the coming weeks, awarded at the Senior Awards Ceremony on May 27th, and publicly announced in early June.

Class of 2024 Senior Awards

Several board members attended the Senior Awards Ceremony before graduation to celebrate the Class of 2024. We were welcomed to the stage to present our scholarship and also to speak to the class about the Alumni Association.

Homecoming

Homecoming on October 4th was a success! We had a ton of fun and enjoyed getting to connect with so many alumni. The BBQ fed over 600 people, primarily students. Staffed by alumni and parent volunteers, it ran incredibly smoothly. We had quite a few people stop by our RHSAA table and say hello, the tent was rarely empty. It is always great getting to chat with alumni of all ages. The activities on the Softball field put on by student leadership looked like a ton of fun with cool variety, there was a steady stream of kids headed that direction all evening. The Football team put up a great defensive game that night but fell short with a 0-3 loss against Lincoln. The stands were packed anyway, with an estimated 1,200 in attendance. And the rain stayed away!

Rose Festival Princess Coronation

On March 18th we attended Roosevelt’s 2025 Rose Festival Princess coronation. All three girls on this year’s court were outstanding candidates. Gloria Zawadi was crowned as Princess.

We had several Past Princesses join us for the ceremony. They were invited on stage to give advice to the ladies on this year's court and to share their own experiences. Afterwards they spoke with newly crowned Princess Gloria to give congratulations and welcome her to the RHS Rose Festival legacy. We were joined by Princess Jacqueline (1959), Princess Temmecha (1998), Princess Kristin (1999), and Princess Heleen (2024). We appreciate each of them for taking the time out of their busy schedules to join this special tradition.

Baseball Season Opener

On March 18th (about a half hour after the Princess Coronation) we helped celebrate the beginning of spring sports with the Baseball team at their opening game. In the pre-game ceremony we spoke about some of the team's history and presented banners to commemorate the PIL and State Championship years. Later this season these were hung on the fence around the field. The first pitch of the season was thrown by Class of 1975's Wade Nelson. During his baseball years at RHS he was a 3rd baseman, and had a batting average over 400 his senior year. The game had a good turnout of alumni and the team went on to beat South Albany that evening.

Marching Band & Parades

Band Director Jason Margollis expressed interest in participating in the Rose Festival Parades with his marching bands. We helped facilitate the band’s application and they are confirmed to be participating in the Grand Floral Parade in the coming weeks.

Support of Columbia Pool

Following the closure of Columbia Pool a few years ago, the RHSAA submitted multiple letters to local government officials advocating for its repair, emphasizing its importance to the RHS Swim Team. With the new city council taking office, we resubmitted our letter of support in late January. Thanks to the efforts of many local advocates, the planned demolition of Columbia Pool has been postponed for one year, allowing more time to explore potential solutions.

The Roosevelt High School Alumni Association sends out sympathy cards to the immediate family of any former RHS grad when we are made aware of their passing. The information usually comes to us via email from someone or we see an obituary notice in the paper. We have heard that our cards are well received by the family, so it is very helpful to include additional contact information if you have it. We have sent out approximately 15 cards since December 2024, so if you know of someone who has passed recently let us know so we can express our condolences to their family.

An email address for this project was established to streamline communication: obituaries@rooseveltalumni.org.

The most recent Memorial stone was placed on April 17, 2025. (4) Volunteers from the Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers union donated their time and materials to place this stone.

The new stone has the names engraved of all the alumni that we lost, connected with their military service.

I need to update information for the online video of alumni we have lost. It was last updated in 2023 and more names need to be added. At that point, we can do an updated video. The stone does have the current list of the alumni that we have lost.

A very sincere thank you to the Alumni Association for your continued support of the Roosevelt High Veterans Memorial. So many people played a major role in making this happen and it would not have happened without the support. I do not truly believe that words can express how meaningful this memorial is to families that lost their loved one (Alumni) associated with their military service. Now their loved one will be honored at Roosevelt and never forgotten.