Hello, Central Friends - - this morning I received an uplifting message from our friend and fellow Central alumni, Don Dudley. Here it is - along with the link to the Pueblo Chieftain that tells the story:
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Baby "Wildcat" Born Today
Central Friends...when creating this Central High Class of '65 blog I envisioned a medium where we could all share joyful news, along with the sorrow that inevitably comes with the passage of time. Lately, we've lost so many of our class members as well as witnessing other challenging events like our friend Maryellen (Koller) Mencimer's recent auto accident and Cheryl (Hilton) Herron's loss of home due to this summer's fires in Colorado Springs, that I hope you will permit me to share something that is, indeed, joyful to our family.
Today we welcomed our 4th grandchild into the world, Calvin ("Cal") Louis Wagner. So along with the sorrow, also comes joy in the beginning of life - and if I know this one - he'll be a True Blue Wildcat through and through. At least his Mimi (that would be me) is going to tell him how we did things and made great memories "back in the day."
I welcome any photo or news events that you would like to share with our classmates - we'll take whatever comes this way. It's just one more way we can keep in touch, sharing life and memories.
Take great care, everyone.
Fondly,
Gale Hoover Hammond
Today we welcomed our 4th grandchild into the world, Calvin ("Cal") Louis Wagner. So along with the sorrow, also comes joy in the beginning of life - and if I know this one - he'll be a True Blue Wildcat through and through. At least his Mimi (that would be me) is going to tell him how we did things and made great memories "back in the day."
Take great care, everyone.
Fondly,
Gale Hoover Hammond
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Waldon Canyon Fire destruction--and how to help!
The Pueblo Chieftain has published an article about the Herrons and their post-fire challenges, and I will "paste" it below.
Meanwhile, the Cheryl and Ron Herron Fire Fund continues to grow. For everyone who has already made a deposit - THANK YOU! The Central Wildcat family is strong and supportive of its own.
To make a deposit to help Cheryl and Ron, go to any Wells Fargo branch office. The name of the account is the Cheryl and Ron Herron Fire Fund, Account Number 2095944688. Thank you so much for your generosity - and thank you, too, to Jan Jones Fisher and Sherry O'Brien Massorotti for establishing the fund for Cheryl and her family.
Here's the Chieftain article:
Pueblo
natives lost their home
Their
possessions are gone, but they’re thankful to have survived
WALDO
CANYON FIRE
COURTESY
PHOTO/RON AND CHERYL HERRON
The
Herrons’ home after the Waldo Canyon Fire.
By
LORETTA SWORD
THE
PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
____________________________________________________
Losing everything forces people to redefine the word “priceless” and learn again the meaning of gratitude.
At least that’s what Ron and Cheryl Herron have discovered since losing their Mountain Shadows home to the Waldo Canyon Fire that left them and 345 other Colorado Springs families with no place to live and huge chunks of their lives reduced to ash.
The Herrons, both Pueblo natives who moved north in 1967 after graduating from South and Central high schools, were in Denver watching a granddaughter play softball when evacuation orders were issued. One of their two daughters was with them; the other had stayed behind with the family dog in the home shared by the extended family.
Cheryl Herron said she didn’t think to give her daughter instructions to save anything but herself and the dog when she learned of the fast-moving fire.
“We told her to just get out and stay safe,” Herron said by phone Friday. “I’m so thankful that’s what she did. It came so quick it wasn’t even funny.”
And now everything is gone.
Family furniture and china.
Hand-written holiday cards from children and grandchildren. Photos of those same loved ones, smiling for the camera in happier times.
“That’s the hardest part — losing pictures, and family things.
Things your kids gave you, and your parents. Things that belonged to them and were a reminder. It’s all gone. But we’re safe and we’re all together, and that’s more important than anything else,” Herron said. “We’re grateful no firefighters were killed or injured, and we want to thank them for doing such a fabulous job. We talked to some of them, and they really feel they let you down when they couldn’t save your house. But they shouldn’t feel that way.
They’re heroes, and that’s all.”
The Herrons have been busy trying to replace clothing and find a home to rent. They’ve been staying with friends in Security while regrouping.
Herron said it’s been a tough process because “there are 346 families looking for a place to live.
One place we were interested in got 30 calls in one day.”
She also wonders whether some landlords are taking advantage of the situation, with asking prices ranging from a low of $1,500 up to $3,000 per month.
“Maybe that’s what the going rate is; I don’t know,” she said, adding that the home they’ve found is nothing like the one her
_________________________
husband and father built with their own hands decades ago, and it’s far from the neighborhood they’ve left behind. Where their daughters grew up. Where their grandchildren attend school.
“But it’s a house, and we’ll make it a home,” she said.
Herron is a retired floral designer and her husband is a building contractor.
Former Puebloan Jan Jones and other friends of the couple in Pueblo have set up the Ron and Cheryl Herron Fund at Wells Fargo Bank to help the family.
Anyone may contribute at any local branch.
Herron said she’s grateful for the generosity of friends and family who’ve “helped us out in so many, many ways,” and she’s been even more amazed at the kindness shown by total strangers.
“You think something like this will never happen to you,” she said. “When it does, you don’t know what to do. And I don’t know what we would have done without all the help people we’ve been given.”
Losing everything forces people to redefine the word “priceless” and learn again the meaning of gratitude.
At least that’s what Ron and Cheryl Herron have discovered since losing their Mountain Shadows home to the Waldo Canyon Fire that left them and 345 other Colorado Springs families with no place to live and huge chunks of their lives reduced to ash.
The Herrons, both Pueblo natives who moved north in 1967 after graduating from South and Central high schools, were in Denver watching a granddaughter play softball when evacuation orders were issued. One of their two daughters was with them; the other had stayed behind with the family dog in the home shared by the extended family.
Cheryl Herron said she didn’t think to give her daughter instructions to save anything but herself and the dog when she learned of the fast-moving fire.
“We told her to just get out and stay safe,” Herron said by phone Friday. “I’m so thankful that’s what she did. It came so quick it wasn’t even funny.”
And now everything is gone.
Family furniture and china.
Hand-written holiday cards from children and grandchildren. Photos of those same loved ones, smiling for the camera in happier times.
“That’s the hardest part — losing pictures, and family things.
Things your kids gave you, and your parents. Things that belonged to them and were a reminder. It’s all gone. But we’re safe and we’re all together, and that’s more important than anything else,” Herron said. “We’re grateful no firefighters were killed or injured, and we want to thank them for doing such a fabulous job. We talked to some of them, and they really feel they let you down when they couldn’t save your house. But they shouldn’t feel that way.
They’re heroes, and that’s all.”
The Herrons have been busy trying to replace clothing and find a home to rent. They’ve been staying with friends in Security while regrouping.
Herron said it’s been a tough process because “there are 346 families looking for a place to live.
One place we were interested in got 30 calls in one day.”
She also wonders whether some landlords are taking advantage of the situation, with asking prices ranging from a low of $1,500 up to $3,000 per month.
“Maybe that’s what the going rate is; I don’t know,” she said, adding that the home they’ve found is nothing like the one her
_________________________
husband and father built with their own hands decades ago, and it’s far from the neighborhood they’ve left behind. Where their daughters grew up. Where their grandchildren attend school.
“But it’s a house, and we’ll make it a home,” she said.
Herron is a retired floral designer and her husband is a building contractor.
Former Puebloan Jan Jones and other friends of the couple in Pueblo have set up the Ron and Cheryl Herron Fund at Wells Fargo Bank to help the family.
Anyone may contribute at any local branch.
Herron said she’s grateful for the generosity of friends and family who’ve “helped us out in so many, many ways,” and she’s been even more amazed at the kindness shown by total strangers.
“You think something like this will never happen to you,” she said. “When it does, you don’t know what to do. And I don’t know what we would have done without all the help people we’ve been given.”
Cheryl & Ron
Herron Fire Fund. Wells Fargo Bank account number 2095944688.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Colorado Fires Update
Dear Classmates,
By now you’ve probably heard
about the Waldo Canyon Fires in Colorado Springs that has been called the most
destructive fires in Colorado’s history. It has wiped out more than 18,000
acres and 346 homes including one that belonged to our classmate Cheryl
(Hilton) Herron and her husband, Ron.
Cheryl, Ron, two daughters and
two grandchildren lived together in their house in the Mountain Shadows subdivision. The family was
in Denver at their grandson’s baseball tournament when the fire broke out. By
the time they got back to Springs, the police would not let them back into
their home because the fire was so near.
Everything was lost, except the clothes on their backs.
Both of Herron’s daughters have
severe medical problems and all are temporarily staying at a friend’s home, but
will soon have to find other living arrangements.
A fund for Cheryl and her family
has been set up by some of her classmates at Wells Fargo Bank. We are asking
Central Wildcat classmates to donate whatever you can afford to help Cheryl and
her family through this horrific time in their lives.
Donations may be made to Wells Fargo Bank: Cheryl and Ron
Herron Fire Fund. (see below)
Thank you.
If you would like to make a donation, please e-mail me at galehooverhammond@yahoo.com, and I will send you the account number for this fund. Donations can be made at any Wells Fargo Bank branch.
I know we will be thinking of Cheryl and her family as they work through this devastating loss.
Take care, everyone!
Monday, April 9, 2012
Memorium - Tom Monchak
Hello again, Central friends,
This morning I received an e-mail message from fellow classmate David Fitterman who wrote to bring news of the passing of yet another of our classmates, Tom Monchak. David provided a copy of the wonderful tribute written about Tom from a Phoenix area publication where Tom had been living. I will provide that link below. Tom had quite a distinguished career as described in his obit; also, the picture - much more recent than the photo from our Central annual! - shows Tom still had the same great smile.
On a happier note, David writes he is still living in New York City doing some consulting work and enjoyed a six-week skiing trip to Breckenridge this winter.
Here is the link to Tom's obituary. Take care, everyone.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/azcentral/obituary.aspx?n=tom-monchak&pid=152198147
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Maryellen Koller Mencimer - automobile accident
Hello, Central Friends,
This morning I received an e-mail from Maryellen Koller Mencimer's husband, Gary. I wanted to post this update for you here - as well letting you know that if you would like to send Maryellen a card or an e-mail message, please contact me at galehooverhammond@yahoo.com, and I will be happy to send her address to you. (I am reluctant to post personal data here on the Internet.) I'm sure she would love hearing from you.
I know it goes without saying that we are all wishing Maryellen and Gary the best in her recovery process, and that we are SO grateful that she lived through this accident.
Below is Gary's message containing the details of the accident as well as some photos he sent.
Take good care, everyone!
********************************
Gale,
Maryellen was involved in a nasty automobile accident yesterday, Thursday, April 5. She was driving her beloved "Sunshine" VW New Beetle - a six year old bug without one blemish and only 27,000 miles. She was making a left hand turn with a green arrow off of Washington just south of HWY 111 when a gentlemen in a rather large SUV hit her almost head on at about 40 mph.
Maryellen's "Sunshine" now has some severe blemishes - as in totaled. And while not totaled, Maryellen is feeling like she is. She has a broken left wrist, four broken ribs, a deep gash on her lower left leg, a severally sprained ankle and bruises on nearly all of her body. The left wrist will require surgery in a few days.
She is resting with the help of some pretty serious narcotics and says that everything including her hair hurts.
After viewing the images of Sunshine and her badly broken body we are just happy that seat belts were in use, the airbag deployed, and that VW builds a pretty tough car. By the way the guy who hit her walked away without a scratch.
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