I wasn't in the formation of the alumni association, but I watched it at
a distance. I tell you how I really got involved with the alumni
association. Reflecting just a little bit. My parents had encouraged us
to be involved in our school. My wife and I—. All in middle school my
wife was really heavily involved. In junior high she and I both were
involved in the parent teacher association, and other activities,
mentoring and that sort of thing. And, when I went to West Charlotte—.
West Charlotte has a reputation of trying to seek people who have been
active. And when my daughter was in the ninth grade, the summer before
she went to West Charlotte—. I can't recall who it was, but somebody
called me and said, "You've got a reputation of being involved in school
and we want to know whether or not you'd be interested in working with
the PTSA at West Charlotte?" And, I said, "Well, that sounds pretty
good." And, I started working with the PTSA when my daughter was in the
tenth grade. When she was in the eleventh grade I was nominated to be
vice-president of the PTSA. I had a project, we had a project that we
wanted to raise that year $15,000 for the PTSA and I took that on. And,
I said, "Where can I get this money from?" I just sort of threw out all
kind of opportunities and
Page 21one of them was the
alumni association. I went to the alumni association and asked them to
get involved with our telethon. Not only did they get involved with our
telethon by calling parents, calling other alumni to get them to
contribute money to the school, but they contributed a sizeable amount
of money to the school, or to the PTSA. And, I said, "Wow. These people
are really committed." So, I started attending the meetings and I got
involved. I saw how committed people were who didn't even have children
or grandchildren at the school, but who were committed in ensuring that
West Charlotte would have as many opportunities available for its
students as it possibly could. And, if the parents couldn't provide
those opportunities the PTSA would say, "We'll see what we can provide."
And, I thought that was just admirable. I said, "Wow. I want to be
involved with these folks." And I got involved with the alumni
association that way. And stayed involved until today. I mean, I'm still
involved. But, because of the alumni association I still have an
involvement with the school. In fact, I got a message yesterday from a
person who wants us to look at another issue that's appearing. That's
how I trekked and got reconnected. I like the goals and objectives of
the alumni association because I feel that they're very noble and I hope
to continue to be involved for some time to come. I think that the cause
there—. It means a whole lot. I was past president of the association
and we had some concerns about four years ago. No, it's been longer than
that. (My kids are older now.) It was during the time that my middle
child was at West Charlotte. We had some concerns about the chemistry
building. The PTSA and the alumni association lobbied the board of
education and we got a new building up there. They found money that had
been appropriated in previous bond issues. And, I said, "Wow, all you've
got to do is get involved and there may be some avenues that can be
Page 22opened up." I thought that was real neat. My
daughter had graduated from West Charlotte then and my son—. Well, she
was really a science kind of person and I can remember her saying, "Dad.
We just don't have what we need." I remember her chemistry teacher
teaching chemistry off a rolling cart. And, I said, "If we don't have a
need for a chemistry laboratory I don't know what we got a need for."
So, we got involved. And, she never could take higher levels of
chemistry because they didn't have the facilities to teach it.