Two Roosevelt alumni were inducted into the PIL Hall of Fame with the 2025 class:

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

We were also able to add Roy Harrington and Darrell Everett to our Hall of Fame. They were inducted into the Hall of Fame through Grant and Marshall respectively as coaches, but their athletic accomplishments were completed at Roosevelt.

The 2026 induction will be held on November 8th, 2026 and the class will have four Roosevelt alumni:

• David Flint, Class of 1980
• Terrell Malley, Class of 2009
• Richie Curtis, Class of 1955
• Eric Gustafson, Class of 1981

Ellen Lougheed-Torchia was nominated again but did not make it to the induction list. Ellen was a 3-time PIL Champion on the Uneven Bars, so the inductees are our absolute top athletes.

The 2027 nominee list is subject to change, currently includes:

• Megan Verbout-Lane, Class of 2015
• Rollin (Rollo) Field, Class of 1942
• Clint (Duke) Cameron, Class of 1940
• Chet (The Jet) Haliski, Class of 1936

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 Kelly Cheney has agreed to start doing research and organization and will be a great addition to this team. Successful research has gained us vital information from relatives of the deceased athletes.

Our nomination forms were presented in a different format this year. We were told that our nomination forms look more “Corporate” this year. We get 5 nominations per year, some schools have fewer nominations, so we are in a great position to increase our number of inductees in the future. Jim Kennison met with John Dunn, President of the PIL Hall of Fame in April. Many points of discussion with clarification on some of the rules for nominations. Jim also showed him our new system for nominees. John said we have taken our whole process to the next level and the other schools will have to step it up.

Athletic Director Willie Williams left Roosevelt for a promotion at the District Office. His replacement, Kevin Locasio, will continue to get the 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. We have also located the District Wrestling Placers (1st through 6th place) information through the internet. No other school currently has this information available to them. Looks like we have more research as many wrestlers have District Awards.

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, and are beginning that work.

The Association has 25 members on its Board of Directors as of the time of this report.

At the September Board of Directors meeting, a new Board Participation Policy was unanimously approved. This policy establishes clear expectations for board involvement, including attending board meetings, participating in committees, and representing the organization. This initiative was one of our goals for the fiscal year, intended to ensure that board membership reflects active commitment to the work of the RHSAA and strengthen the board’s capacity and accountability moving forward. This policy was shared with all board members and posted on our website.

There were several leadership transitions within the board’s committee structure. Janine Wolf stepped down as History Committee Chair after several years of service. She will continue to support history projects as needed, and the organization is currently working to identify a new committee chair. Dylan Young stepped into the role of Scholarship Committee Chair, providing clear leadership for that committee moving forward.

In addition, several committees have identified new volunteer roles that must be filled by board members rather than general volunteers due to the nature of the work involved. These roles help support key areas of the organization where added access, trust, or oversight is required.

On February 16th, 2026, the Association lost longtime President Mike Verbout. Mike was the founding member behind our creation and central to our organization’s work. He leaves a lasting impact on Roosevelt High School and our community.

Following this loss, the Executive Committee appointed interim officers to fill the vacancy. Jim Kennison is serving as Interim President, and Megan Hall is serving as Interim Vice President until the next election of officers at the May Board of Directors meeting.

On May 6th, 2026, our Picnic Committee Chair Michelle Hall passed away.

Email Newsletters

We have had a strong year of newsletters, sending ten so far, with one more planned before the end of our fiscal year. These typically include upcoming events to attend (primarily student events), history project updates, volunteer opportunities, grant announcements, and more. Through the fall these newsletter were a big way we connected with potential donors as we pushed to raise funds for our matching donation initiative.

We still sit at just about 1,500 subscribers which has been a steady number for a while now. While we rarely get any unsubscribes, we see email addresses go defunct as folks retire or stop using an address, and this matches the pace we get new subscribers.

We have a new member of our CommComm team joining on the newsletter project, Heidi Feight, Class of 2010. She is helping with writing content, and intends to branch out into other communications work as well.

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. Both audiences have increased about 250 new followers each, getting our totals on both platforms up to roughly 1,750.

Our most successful posts in the past year have included the monthly student representative reports, completed history projects, grant announcements, and upcoming events. The algorithm is fickle and we never know what will get the most views or interactions, but we’ve had a consistent following that stays engaged.

Website

Updates to website content happen roughly once a month. In the past year we have expanded our open volunteer roles substantially, added a new history page for principals, added a new page listing past grant recipients with photos and details, and included more information on donations.

Newspaper Correspondence

We have worked with the North Peninsula Review multiple times in the past year. Over the summer they announced our 2025 scholarship winners, with photos and short bios. Through the fall they wrote multiple articles about the matching donation initiative. In March they shared an announcement about the success of the fundraising, though they misquoted our raised total and corrected it in the following issue. They also printed the announcement of Mike Verbout’s passing with a front page story.

The Executive Committee meets bi-monthly at minimum and addresses all business that must be handled between Board meetings. 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. The committee typically meets at 6 PM on the 3rd Thursday of even-numbered months. Board members who would like can attend executive committee meetings, either virtually or in-person.

As part of the Association wide goal this year, the committee had a planning session to discuss committee purpose and our future. We identified the need for additional committee members to help us continue our work overseeing the organization, and set a goal related to supporting the board at-large.

This year truly brought both excitement and a few hurdles for us. We were presented with a unique challenge—two alumni stepped forward and pledged to match any funds we could raise with like donations. The challenge began in July 2025 and concluded in January 2026. With less than a year to mobilize, our alumni community rallied like never before, resulting in donations that exceeded every previous year since our founding. In the end, we raised an incredible $100,000+.

The need at Roosevelt has only grown, especially with the recent PPS budget cuts beginning to impact us in the 2026 school year. The generosity of our alumni ensures we can continue to support our students and buffer these shortages. A heartfelt thank you goes out to everyone who entrusted us with their donations—every dollar we raise directly benefits the students of Roosevelt. We truly couldn’t do this without your steadfast support.

This section details the RHSAA's support of student programs, special projects, and other grant recipients over the past year.

Group/Project	Award	Award Date
Bardy Trophy - Athletics	$725	7/24/2025
Dance Team Uniforms	$1,000	7/30/2025
Leadership (Homecoming)	$2,000	9/12/2025
BBQ Tailgate (Homecoming)	$875	9/3/2025
Dance Team	$1,000	10/8/2025
Men's Basketball Team	$1,000	10/30/2025
Trophy Cases	$165	11/12/2025
Bardy Trophy - Rose Festival	$470	11/22/2025
Men's Basketball Team	$2,000	11/20/2025
Raquet Ball Team	$300	12/3/2025
Christmas Gift Cards	$3,750	12/11/2025
Baseball Team	$1,000	1/5/2026
Yearbook	$300	1/9/2026
Softball Team	$1,000	1/9/2026
Bardy Trophy - Hall of Fame	$100	1/28/2026
Speech Debate Team	$1,000	1/5/2026
Baseball Team Coaching Stipend	$1,000	1/28/2026
Bardy Trophy - Athletics	$400	2/7/2026
Cross Country Tent	$2,000	2/4/2026
Yearbook/Newspaper Trip	$2,000	2/17/2026
Track Equipment	$1,000	2/17/2026
MECHA	$500	2/20/2026
Unity Fest	$1,000	3/18/2026
Black Student Union	$500	4/7/2026
Bardy Trophy - Athletics	$233	4/17/2026
Women's Basketball Team	$1,000	4/14/2026
Leadership (Prom)	$2,000	4/14/2026
Dance Team	$500	4/14/2026
Scholarship (Alumni Student Rep)	$1,000	5/21/2026
5 Scholarships	$5,000	TBD
Total (7/2025 thru 5/2026)	$34,093

This list represents $34,093.00 in support our organization has given towards the school, the student body, and our alumni.

Athletic Plaques

We are making plaques for our notable current athletes, and they are displayed in the new trophy cases in the gym lobby. This is a great place for them to be displayed as any student or visitor that goes to a game can see that Roosevelt has some great athletes and heritage.

• Aster Jones has been updated to show her many achievements from this past year.
• Coach Justin Hollinghead has been updated to show his 2nd Coach of The Year award.
• Geovoney Burks has been updated to show his many achievements for this past year.
• Conner Hutcheson, Theodore Vohs, Vida Boskovic, Johawna Bass, and Emony Greely, all wrestlers that placed in PIL, Regionals, or State meets this year.
• Updated Coach McCants’ Coach of The Year award.
• Plaques for Miles Green and Caelen Riley were placed for excellence in football.
• Trophies for the Football Team were all updated this past Fall to reflect the recent winners of those awards.
• Four plaques were placed into the PIL Hall of Fame this past winter. They included two inductees, and two coaches. Geoff Dilkes and Livia Strandberg were inducted as athletes. Roy Harrington and Darrell Everett were in the Hall of Fame as coaches for other schools. [See the Athletic Hall of Fame report for more details].

Journalism Display

Janine Wolf met 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. Jeanine designed the display, which will include early yearbooks and school newspapers. She also has spoken to Tara about digitizing the old newspapers that we have in storage. This will be quite the project. They are working on the cost of the project currently.

Principal History

The website has been updated with pictures and years of service of our principals. This was done through research of Jeanine Sinnott and Jim Kennison. There is an ongoing task of searching for a photo of Ethel Waters, the sole teacher of St. Johns High School during the 1906-1907 school year.

Rose Festival Portrait Display

The Princess pictures have been installed inside the Fred Meyer store on Lombard and Ida Streets. We have secured 3 walls for the installation which took place in late October. Five classmates from the Class of 74 did the installation which took a week as we were using 10-foot ladders while the store was open. Lots of framework was done and the pictures were hung by year, dating back to 1923. We’ve had many compliments to the store and the Alumni Association for doing this in such a public place for everyone to see.

Committee Planning Session Results

Meeting was held on February 21st, 2026, to discuss our purpose and vision as a committee. Successful when we research and preserve the history of Roosevelt High School, ensuring that students, alumni, and the community can understand the school’s past, celebrate its accomplishments, and draw inspiration from the achievements of Roughriders during and beyond their time at Roosevelt. We discussed Memberships, Partners and Connections, Current Projects, Priorities, Needs and Support, and Future Goals.

The 2025 picnic was a success with an estimated 400 attending, even more than 2024. The majority stayed from 12 - 3pm, with a few hanging around long after our afternoon ended. The weather was sunny and mild, the potluck tables were overflowing, and we had plenty of space in the park so it never felt crowded. There were classes represented from 1950 up to a handful of current students, plus a few young "Future Riders". 1975 and 2000 had strong attendance to celebrate milestone years. We had about 14 volunteers day-of that helped with setup, clean up, welcome table, photos, and keeping everything running smoothly.

The 2026 planning is well underway, past practice has streamlined the process. Park reservations and toilets have been ordered and paid for. In early July we will place the fried chicken order, and do inventory of supplies to see if anything needs to be replenished. Mimi Cha has volunteered to be the day-of coordinator for the event, Jeanine Sinnot to run the welcome table, and when we get closer to that date we will look for our day-of volunteers.

The 2027 All-Class Picnic will be held on July 17th at Columbia Park from 12 - 4pm.

The Class of 2025 Scholarship was awarded at the end of May 2025, 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:

• Gloria Zawadi
• Daniel Okonkwo
• Gabriela Montanez
• Maryan Hussein
• Ariana Hernandez Hernandez

The Class of 2026 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 members Elizabeth Elia (Class of 2014) and Jazzmine Waugh (Class of 2013), and applications were processed by Megan Hall. This year's application opened in late February and closed the first week of April, bringing in 35 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 26th, and publicly announced in early June.

For a number of years, the Board of Directors has noted the need for student voice in our work. We created a new role within the organization, with one or two Student Representatives serving a one-year term to provide a direct student perspective. The outline of duties includes writing a monthly submission highlighting a student event or project for alumni to support, as well as attending each of our three board meetings to present and participate in general discussion.

In June 2025, we opened applications for our first Student Representatives, seeking candidates with a minimum 3.0 GPA who were rising juniors or seniors. The application asked for general information about the student, along with a sample report on the previous year’s Homecoming. We received eight strong applications, and the Executive Committee reviewed each at length.

We selected Hazel Patterson (Class of 2026) and Rylan Hayes (Class of 2027). Both students submitted impressive sample reports, and their involvement complemented each other well. Hazel is active in student leadership and athletics, while Rylan is involved in the arts. We welcomed them over the summer, communicating about their responsibilities and getting to know them before their term officially began in September.

Since then, they have submitted a report every month from September through May and will complete their final report in June. They have also attended our board meetings, actively contributing to discussions and providing valuable insight.

As a first-year pilot, the program has been very successful in the eyes of the Board of Directors, and we look forward to continuing it in the coming school year.

Class of 2025 Senior Awards

At the Senior Awards Ceremony on May 28th, we welcomed the Class of 2025 as the newest members of the Alumni Association. A welcome speech was given to the class, and five scholarship winners were recognized. This was a solemn evening following the loss of a member of the class in a car crash, and a candlelight vigil was held after the ceremony. Alumni attended alongside students in solidarity.

Homecoming

Homecoming was held on October 17th and was a great success. The RHSAA partnered with the Roosevelt Supporter Club to host a free community BBQ before the game, serving an estimated 500 students and community members. The line remained steady throughout the evening, and the stadium was packed as Roosevelt brought home a 50–7 win over Franklin. Thank you to everyone who helped make the event possible.

Thanksgiving Food Boxes

During the week of Thanksgiving, we delivered 12 pallets of food donated by the Sunshine Division to Roosevelt. In partnership with the Roosevelt Supporter Club, more than 175 food boxes were assembled and distributed to families in need. Families were able to select culturally specific items and take home pies for the holiday. We are grateful for this strong partnership and the support it provided to our community. Thank you to everyone who donated, and to the RHS Social Work Team for identifying families and helping make these distributions possible.

Christmas Food Boxes & Gifts

We worked with the school’s Social Work Team and the Roosevelt Supporter Club to support families in need ahead of the December holidays. This included food boxes for 150 families, as well as gifts for children through the holiday gift drive. Food boxes were donated by the Sunshine Division and supplemented with rolls and breads from Franz Bakery, with additional culturally specific foods purchased through donated funds. We also thank Reliable Service People for lending a moving truck to deliver the pallets of food to the school.

The gift drive allows parents to select one gift for each of their children to wrap and present during their holiday celebrations. Gifts for younger children were donated by the KGW Great Toy Drive, and 150 gift cards totalling $3,750 for teens were provided by the RHSAA, along with additional contributions from local groups including the Roosevelt Supporter Club, SEI, and others.

We are planning to host a dedication of the new memorial stone on Memorial Day, on May 25th, 2026, at 11:00 AM. I intend to clean up the Memorial as needed, this includes trimming the grass and weeds in and near the Memorial. Dick Lovegren will provide flags for the Memorial Day event and will speak as well. Dick is Roosevelt Class of 1973 and his wife Debbie is Class of 1974. Dick is an Army Veteran, very active with the POW/MIA in Oregon. Dick lost his brother David Lovegren in the Vietnam War.

Carolyn Bonnin continues to provide flowers for the Roosevelt High School Veterans Memorial as needed.

Two names were added to the back of the most recent memorial stone by O M Stone Company. Vietnam War:

• Thomas F. Mineau (Class of 1951)
• Clifford F. Dowling. (Class of 1958)

I met with Jesse Newell on May 4, to discuss the progress on updating the Roosevelt High Veterans Memorial Video. If all turns out well, it may be updated by the end of May, 2026.

I have had discussion with Jeanine Sinnott regarding turning the Resource book that I frequently use, into a book that could be printed out for others. The book would contain the names of Alumni that we have lost connected with their service and other details about those Alumni.

I want to thank the Alumni Association again for the continued support of the Roosevelt High Veterans Memorial. This is so very important to the family members that have lost their loved ones. The Memorial also assures that these Alumni will always be honored, respected and never forgotten. We continue to receive emails and letters from family members expressing their appreciation for what the Alumni Association is doing to honor their loved ones.