Nicholas Senn High School
Senn Celebrates 100 years in Edgewater
The weekend of celebrations began with the community open house on Friday evening October 4th. The doors were opened early and alums were in line at the check in desk. Also, Senn Friends Forever had a table to accept donations.
On the program were tours of the school and special classrooms for celebrating some of the decades. The ’50s and ’60s were together in the gym and there was lots of people there. Not so many at the ’70s and ’80s but all installations included videos and music of the decades. Variations on the Senn Bull Dog were posted around the building, each one looking more ferocious and Green was the color of the day.
Lynn Pierce was there and we went with her to look at the history posted on the walls. Her outline of the decades of Senn History was incredibly valuable as the current Senn students used it for posters in the decades rooms. Other highlights of our tour included a visit to the cafeteria where there were refreshments and memorabilia for sale – Tshirts etc. We also stopped at Elston Elston’s (longtime Senn Art Teacher) beautiful mural in one hallway.
The program in Senn Hall began at 7 p.m. with a Welcome from Susan Lofton, Principal. She outlined the history of Senn’s past 100 years and brought that history up to date with some highlights of the last three years.
Then students of the many Senn ethnic groups marched into the hall carrying their home country flag and wearing costumes of their native lands. For many years Senn has been a multi-ethnic school where students from any countries around the world learn to speak English and participate in the American culture. After the presentation of the American flag by the honor guard a young lady stepped forward to sing the national anthem. She was joined in singing by the entire audience. It was a moment of pride for all who were there.
Additional programming included: performances by Senn students and later in the evening a sock hop in the gym. All of this was before the Gala event at Navy Pier on Saturday evening which was attended by about 800.