PHS Graduates Form Alumni Association to Improve School
The directory has records of thousands of PHS graduates and what they're doing now.
The building on East Street has rooms that need repainting or new carpet, and the theater seats could be replaced, and textbooks updated. There are new programs that could be developed and implemented.
And there is also a lot of pride among those who spent years in that building -- the thousands of Generals who list PHS as their alma mater.
Since the city's dollars are tight, a group of alumni decided that it will make those improvements. On Friday, these PHS graduates joined together at Patrick's Pub to launch the PHS Alumni Association. The newly formed non-profit will fundraise and bring years of graduates together to make Pittsfield better now and in the future.
"There is a lot of history to the building. There is a lot of history of the graduates. And there is a lot of pride," former PHS student and teacher Tom Dillon said.
The idea started back in 2001 or so when Dillon and others joined together to create a directory. A list of all of the graduates in the school's history was put together and a company took on the process of tracking people down, asking for updated information, and published a book detailing who graduated, where they are now, and what they are doing. That was updated in 2009 and then again in 2017.
That is now serving a the base for bringing alumni together. Dillon was joined by current PHS staff members Brendan Sheran, class of 2002, and Kellie O'Hagerty, class of 1986, to create the new non-profit. They crafted a charter and got the legal 501(c)3 designation.
"They can donate money and it would go to PHS. It isn't an organization that is going to slide money to people, it is going to the building and the teachers," O'Hagerty said.
O'Hagerty compared the project to the Boston Latin School Association that has been able to make a significant number of donations to improve the school there. Dillon noted the former St. Joseph High School's annual dinners that honored distinguished alumni had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the school. The three believe PHS graduates care about their school now and are looking to tap into that.
"It was this idea of let's start a group where we can take all of these reunion people and put them under one roof and say what can we do to help teachers and programs," O'Hagerty said.
Dillon said right now there are a number of groups which organize reunions. The new association can also serve as a reference for those groups and vice versa. They can help each other connect with former graduates.
"There are alumni out there that would be willing to support sustained programming," Dillon said. "People want to plan class reunions, they need information on graduates. So we are hoping we can share information."
Now that the organization is formed, the three are looking to expand the board, which will make determinations on how to spend donations and plan fundraising events.
The effort is also somewhat of a response to the building of the new $120 million Taconic High School. The alumni still believe in the two-school system and want to see PHS be sustainable for the long term. They say since the city hasn't taken on a massive renovation project on East Street, they'll chip away little by little on making improvements.
Tags: alumni, PHS,
