By CONNIE and LYNN BAER
Since San Diego County residents are advised to avoid gatherings of any size, it is impossible to plan a fall celebration for our 100th anniversary. All fall sports are delayed until December and learning is currently online. The celebration planned for Oct. 16 and 17 has been postponed until it is safe for the Foothiller community to gather.
Perhaps, we can plan something smaller in winter 2020 as a precursor to a larger celebration in Spring 2021. As we all know, this pandemic has thrown us all off track. However, we look forward to seeing you at the 100th Anniversary Celebration, whenever it is held. We are hopeful that our previously shared plans will remain the same for the events held on campus during the celebration.
We still hope to play the Sweetwater High vs Grossmont High football game to celebrate a historic rivalry with the “Sweeties,” a 41-year consecutive game rivalry from 1920-1961. In 1920, GHS’s first football game was against Sweetwater. Football coach Tom Karlo (Class of 1992) recently shared with us, “Right now football will just shift to Jan. 8 as our first game, which would be Sweetwater.” Let’s keep the thought, right?
100th Anniversary Celebration logo
Last October, the digital art classes visited the GHS Museum to gather ideas to help them create the 100th anniversary logo. Guided by their teachers Carolyn Jungman and Jan Mafnas, the students with their groups then had two months to create a logo that would capture 100 years of Foothiller tradition and history.
In December, members of the GHS 100th Celebration Steering Committee visited the digital art room for the students’ presentations. The selection of the final logo was difficult due to the many wonderful visions that the students created.
Committee President Amy Conrad shares, “We are so excited to be celebrating Grossmont High School’s 100th year and congratulate GHS design students for creating a logo to commemorate Grossmont’s rich history in our community.”
The 100th anniversary logo echoes the first logo used by Grossmont. In 1922, the cover of the second yearbook, El Recuerdo, was decorated with an embossed logo of a silhouette of a hill with the sun peeking above it. In 1923, the same image was used with the added perimeter border first saying “Grossmont 1923”; then in 1924, the border became “Grossmont Union High School 1920,” which it remained. A charming art deco feature of the name was the overlapping of the “O’s” in “School”.
When we began the museum in 2007, we chose the original school logo to be the museum’s logo, a reminder of our historic origins, as Grossmont UHS was created to serve East County students after the closing of the Riverview Union High School campus in Lakeside and the original El Cajon Valley Union High School. In our museum collection, we have the original seal press that was used to impress the school’s seal on official documents such as graduation diplomas — and it still works!
A more modern interpretation of the original logo is seen in the lobby of the 2016 GHS office. This beautiful four-feet-diameter granite medallion welcomes visitors, students, and staff to the office. Donated by Class of 1965 alumnus Ginger Cheney Belilove and created by her husband Jim and his company Creative Edge MasterShop in Fairfield, Iowa, it reminds Foothillers of their historic legacy.
Become part of our historic campus
Today, there are several opportunities to celebrate yourself, your family, your class, or your business. One way is to contribute to our GHS Endowment Fund and become a Foothiller Friend ($250) or Founder ($1,000). Your donation will be permanently commemorated with a gray tile on campus. Visit grossmont.donationtiles.com to see the current tiles and place an online order or contact us to receive an order form by mail.
Another opportunity is to donate a personalized royal blue 6 foot bench on campus to celebrate you, your family, or your class ($1,650). There are many locations available including near the entrance to the new theater. Please email or phone us for more information.
To learn more about GHS, past and present, visit the GHS Museum website at foothillermuseum.com. Due to the coronavirus and our move into our larger museum space, the GHS Museum is currently closed, but we are checking our emails at [email protected] and our phone messages at 619-668-6140.
Correction to 2020 Daisy Chain
Inadvertently, Andie Akenson was omitted from the list of participants in the 2020 Daisy Chain during the 2020 graduation celebration that was printed this column in the June 26 issue of La Mesa Courier. We apologize for the error.
— Connie and Lynn Baer write on behalf of the GHS Museum.
