Alumni gather at Paradise Center

Nearly 80 people gathered at the old brick schoolhouse for the Fourth Annual Paradise Alumni Reunion Friday and Saturday to talk of old times and look at themselves through lenses of the past.

"I've asked many and there is no doubt that the Paradise alumni have a special bond to the former school building," said Dave Colyer, the primary coordinator for school reunion. Between 15-20 former students and their families attended the reunion on Friday, fewer than last year, but more showed up on Saturday for the potluck dinner. Several people attended the all-class reunion on both days.

Paradise Elementary School closed its doors due to a lack in student population in 2013 and was converted to the Paradise Center, a nonprofit organization that houses a community center, visitors center, an art center, and a museum that contains countless items from the town's railroad days and the 115-year-old schoolhouse. This year's attendees had the opportunity to tour the newly constructed miniature roundhouse, which illustrates railroad antiquities.

"The compliments from the alumni are with feeling. They realize the amount of time and effort it has taken to turn the former school into such a great place to visit," said Colyer, who came up with the reunion idea. Colyer, president of the Paradise Center, was a student at the school from 1962 to 1970. His sister, Jackie Colyer, attended the school from 1959 to 1967 and also helped coordinate the event.

The reunion included an auction of almost 50 items ranging from a small porcelain tub to a three-quarter bed that might have come from the 1930s. Organizers didn't have the final tally on the amount raised from the auction. People also donated money to the center. Proceeds from the silent auction will be split between future class reunions and the center.

The majority of the attendees live in Sanders County, but there were a few from out of town, including Bobbi Jean (Parrish) Oberst of Lacey, Wash., who attended the reunion with her Plains High School sweetheart, Fritz. At 85, Bobbi Jean Oberst was likely the oldest alumnus at the event. She attended the school from 1945 to 1953. Her father, Bill, had been the town's postmaster and was a janitor at the school.

The youngest to attend was 63-year-old Brent Stephens, who attended kindergarten to fourth grade from 1964 to 1969. Stephens was in the first official kindergarten class of the school. Colyer said that Montana mandated a kindergarten in 1964, but prior to that parents of kindergarten students paid for a teacher while the school provided the materials. Stephens also traveled the farthest distance, coming from Oklahoma City.

Stephen, who has attended two of the four reunions, said he was happy that the schoolhouse was saved and converted to the Paradise Center. He said he has a lot of special memories of his time as a student at Paradise. "I tell people that I literally went to a school on the hill with a bell tower," said Stephens. "We used to ring the bell and we'd hold onto the rope and it would pull us up off the floor. It was a blast," he said. People periodically rang the bell at the reunion last week.

"Whether it's the alumni reunion or class reunion the attendees always enjoy visiting each other. Even talking with friends you haven't seen for years the conversation just kinda picks up where it quit," said Colyer. He said they had a lot of fun talking with old classmates and looking through old news clippings and photographs. One of the rooms on the third floor of the Paradise Center was converted to an old classroom with a list of the teachers from the time the school opened to its closing 11 years ago, along with student desks from different eras, books and other classroom items. A few of the visitors checked to see if they could still squeeze in the old desks and took time to try and identify their former classmates in the numerous photos on display.

Kay (Hermes) Nygaard, a Paradise student from 1950 to 1958, found herself in a fourth or fifth grade picture and was able to identify more than half of the students in the photo. Her mother, Elizabeth "Virginia" Hermes, taught at the school for about 15 years. Nygaard said the room had been the music classroom when she was a student. She took piano lessons for a dollar a lesson from Hazel Walsh. "We used to sell eggs to pay for our music lessons," said Nygaard.

Sixty-six-year-old Darrell Sorenson, a student from 1965 to 1972, said he loves attending the reunions and listening to the stories from those who attended the school years before him. Several of the former students talked about how close knit Paradise School students were and enjoyed their time more than when they moved on to Plains School. "We were the dumb kids to the Plains students," said Sarah Stephens, 84, Brent's mother.

The auction no longer had any sports paraphernalia for sale, but visitors could still see various sports items on display in the center, including a cheerleader outfit donated by Laura (Allen) Crawford, who went to Paradise School from 1964 to 1971 and presently resides in Ronan. "I loved it here. I played basketball and did track," said Crawford.

They were the Paradise Bombers, a name that the students voted on during World War II in honor of the U.S. Army-Air Corps bombers, said Colyer. The Colyers had their own family reunion on Sunday at the center, where 54 people attended from Paradise to Kennewick, Wash. He said the reunion included the Colyer, Cole, Steele, and Kelly families.

The Colyers have held their reunion at the center five or six times. "As always, some old and new stories were talked about and most of them related to the Colyer family that came to Paradise in 1927," said Dave Colyer, referring to Frank and Bea Colyer, his grandparents.

Colyer said the group had a great time and several had never toured the Paradise Center. He said that visitors were impressed with the new roundhouse and items displayed there. "A new display in the historic classroom of former students that excelled in music really got their attention," he said. "Everyone that attended really enjoyed themselves. A lot of compliments about how the center looks," he added. He said that a woman from St. Ignatius stopped by the center last weekend and told him that she has toured many museums and rated the Paradise Center as number one.

Colyer said they are considering holding next year's school reunion on July 5-6.