THIS IS SURRATTS FOUNDATION E-NOTICE 2008-1 OF JANUARY 1, 2008

Hello Hornets:

Here are some items that may be of interest:

1.  LONG LOST RING UNITED WITH ITS OWNER.  Thanks to the efforts of Jackie Kaiser-MacBryde (71), Ruth Stout Maitland (72) has been reunited with her long lost Surratts ring.  Thanks to Jackie for getting this very special holiday gift to Ruth!

2. ... AND SPEAKING OF LOST RINGS.  Some time ago, we received a very nice note from Jeanette Brown, a teacher at Patrick Henry Elementary School, on a U.S. Army Post in Heidelberg, Germany.  Jeanette found, on the playground at the school, a 1971 men's class ring, with initials "DLD" inside.  To date, we haven't been able to find its owner -- and no yearbook photo of any male member of the Class of 71 has the initials DLD.

Perhaps the ring was owned by one of our schoolmates who passed through the halls of Surratts quickly in connection with a parent's military deployment, and was a Hornet long enough to order a ring but not to have a yearbook photo taken.  Or perhaps the ring company made a typo in the initials inside the ring.

Any tips that might help us reunite this ring with its owner would be very much appreciated!

3.  AN UPDATE FROM AFGHANISTAN.  We received this update from Rix Mills (62) on his efforts to help school kids in Afghanistan: "Henry:  Thanks for including me in the Surratts News and I am gaining momentum as three more foot soldiers have joined my campaign to help the school kids here in the greater Mazar-e-Sharif area of Afghanistan.  Most recently, in addition to Suzan Martz (62) and Becky Myers (62), Donna Granato (62), Pamela Ruiz and Pamela Buckingham (68) have been or are sending me packages of school supplies that have been most helpful in my personal mission.  I am truly thankful for these kind hearted souls who want to reach beyond their daily lives and lend a helping hand to people much less fortunate than us.  I hope to get more people interested in the future and appreciate your support as always.  This is not the best place I have been in my life but we can certainly make it a better place if we dare to try.  Rix"

Please contact Rix at rixmills5@aol.com if you would like to get involved in this great effort.  (Photos of Rix and his efforts in Afghanistan can be found on the Foundation's web site at www.surrattsville.org.)

4.  CLASS OF 58 REUNION PLANS.  The Class of 58 is planning its 50 Year Reunion.  Please contact Bob Warren at bpwarren@hughes.net or 301-274-3489, or Jean Merriman Beardmore at lljbeard@shentel.net or 540-635-7380, if you have any information on Class of 58 grads or their family members.

5.  MORE HORNET SPORTS MEMORIES.  We received these additional Hornet sports memories from Chuck Teubner (64):  "Hi Henry:  I would add a couple of comments about Hornets sports. First, congratulations to the 2007 football team. It was great to read about them and their success this year. I would also point out that the 62 football team was undefeated as Vicki Forsht Williams commented. I played on it as a junior with her husband Pete Williams. The next year was a bit tougher. We had great anticipation because we had many starters returning from the undefeated season but we had a mind boggling number of injuries, particularly to the running backs. It was so bad I ended up as a tailback the last few games after having been a tight end and middle linebacker previously. The 63-64 basketball team won the County AA league and got as far as the State semi-finals and lost to Towson in overtime. A number of the junior players came back from that team the next year (Ray Blosse, Larry Schillings, Norm Carmichael, etc.) and won the AA championship. I was a freshman at Maryland and remember Norm Carmichael having an extraordinary game in the final against the All-State, All-American center for Alleghany he basically shut him down and Surrattsville won the state championship it was a great game.  Chuck"

6.  TIPS FOR FINDING REPLACEMENT YEARBOOKS.  Pat Becker Oles (71) sent this tip she saw in the newspaper about finding replacement yearbooks:   a.  Put an ad in the local paper for the town of the high school (one reader did, and got a call from the wife of a former school counselor, who had several on hand); and b. Check Ebay under "yearbook" category of "annuals" category (one reader said she has been successful with this).

7.  ANNUAL CAMPAIGN A GREAT SUCCESS.  Thanks to the generosity of the donors listed below, the Foundation's 2007 Annual Campaign was a great success.  (It's not too late to contribute to this noble cause if you'd like to do so.)  Heartfelt thanks to these generous donors who help to fund the Foundation's activities!  (A donor form is reprinted below, and is available on the Foundation's web site at www.surrattsville.org.)

8.  FOUNDATION BOARD STILL SEEKING "LOCAL" VOLUNTEERS.  The Board of the has identified a local volunteer, but is still seeking others to help provide the out-of-town Board members with a "local presence" in the School community.  If you're still in the D.C. area, and you would be willing to volunteer a few hours in the coming year to the Foundation, please let me know by email at hsmith@smithdowney.com.

9.  DON'T FORGET TO GENERATE DONATIONS TO THE FOUNDATION WHILE SEARCHING THE WEB.  Please don't forget to set your web browser home page to the Yahoo-powered search engine, goodsearch.com, that generates donations to charitable organizations designated by its users.  You'll need to indicate "The Surrattsville High School Foundation, Inc." as your designated charity.  You'll recall that this is a painless way for each of us to increase the Foundation's fund raising efforts by simply making a small change to the way we do something many of us do each day web searching.

Here are the details.  Go to http://www.goodsearch.com.  In the indicated box, designate The Surrattsville High School Foundation, Inc. as the charity to receive donations from goodsearch's advertisers each time you search the web.  Then use goodsearch.com to do your web searching.  (You designate goodsearch.com as your homepage on your computer by going to http://www.goodsearch.com/MakeHomepage.aspx.)

Thanks for considering changing the way you search the web to generate donations to the Foundation.  (Goodsearch.com reports that if 1,000 Foundation supporters search the web twice a day, $7300 in donations will be generated for the Foundation each year!).


Very best wishes for a wonderful 2008!

All the best, Henry Smith (71), hsmith@smithdowney.com


MANY THANKS TO THESE DONORS TO THE FOUNDATION'S 2007 CAMPAIGN!

Pat Becker Oles (71)
Steve Profilet (71)
Michelle Shelley Wilson Block (68)
Sally Saker Weingarten (77)
Janet Goddard Sullivan (54), In memory of her brother, Jesse "Skip" Goddard, Jr. (56)
Roy Nestor (72), In Memory of Jana Sims Nestor
Kurt Aktug (88)
June Jacobs Brown (44)
Thomas V. Mike Miller (60)
Linda Dorsey Blum (66)
Vicki Forsht Williams (65), In joyful celebration of the marriage of Nancy Oursler Maynard (65) and Larry Schillings (65)
Vicki Forsht Williams (65, and former faculty), In memory of Eugene Colgan, former (and greatest!) Principal
Ellen Talbert-Miller (61, and former faculty/administration), In memory of Eugene Colgan, Principal and mentor
Bob Marr (71)
Deborah Cox Marr (72)
Vicky Simontacchi Young (57), To Honor the Class of 1957
Henry Smith (71)
Donna Rae Sturtevant Smith (70)
Melissa Gilcrest (69)
David Kraus (65), In memory of Ed Andrauskas, Faculty
Jeanine Carroll Maclary (73), In memory of James R. (Jimmy) Carroll
Dan Bayne (71), For the Charles Waddell Scholarship Fund
Anne Noyes (former faculty)
Nancy Miller (67)
Judy Gordon Mentlik (65)
Mike Blair (71)
Lark Bergwin-Anderson (71)
Tom Travis (76)
Sally LePla Travis (76)
Helen Bovbjerg Niedung (54)
Joan Penn Revis (61)
Homer Revis (56)
Teri Pepper Dimsey (77), In memory of good times with Chris Smith
Lora Baker Couchman (77), In memory of good times with Chris Smith
Paul Monaghan (58)
Laura Anatale Nowak (74), In memory of Patsy Torrecarian Stein
Jim Turner (71)
Rebecca Moyle Hintze (60)
Richard Scott McWhirt (71)
Marie O'Clair, In Memory of Col. O'Clair
John Paul Rickett (69)
Gloria Blandford Rickett (71)