Downieville Hosts Centennial High School Reunion

DOWNIEVILLE — On Friday, June 20, 2025, under a sunny and rare cool summer sky, Downieville began to grow in size with familiar faces as folks from all over the country (and even some from outside the lower 48 & beyond the US!) rolled into town by RV, rental car, family van, sporty convertible, motorcycle, scooter, bicycle, seven-person cycle, and for some lucky locals, on foot. Friday evening was about shedding the world outside our small hometown and reconnecting with the best parts of our roots. As we all walked by each other in town, we would look at each other a little longer, a bit more closely, not as strangers, but in the expectation that maybe we were friends? Saying to ourselves, “Do I know this smile, these eyes?” More often than not, we already knew each other; we just had not updated our internal databases to include such qualities as salt and pepper hair, the small lines exhibiting the joys and struggles of time and experience in the faces of our childhood friends. Many hugs and handshakes were exchanged at every turn. We saw this scene being repeated all around us. Some of the former students convened at the back porch of Sabrina’s at The Forks to share dinner and catch up on each others’ lives. Many of us are grateful to Sabrina for the naming of her restaurant, as it holds up to recognition and continues the most recognizable parts of the old Forks Restaurant’s heyday of the 1980s: good food and an amazing view from that back porch! Others began reuniting at St. Charles Place, the full-service bar in town that carries 162 years of stories of its own.

Also, on Friday night, as reunion registration began, Michael Taylor of The Downieville River Inn gave reunion folks rides on his seven-person bicycle on a loop around town! This author should have taken the opportunity to ride with her classmates but did not realize it was a singular opportunity and deeply regrets having missed it.

On Saturday, June 21, 2025, reunion registration began mid-morning and went strong most of the day as more and more reunion attendees rolled into town. That, too, is when the raffle ticket sales began with great interest. This reunion’s raffle was to fund a new sign for Downieville Schools to replace the current sign downtown next to the Post Office. Karen Galan carefully put together five beautiful prize baskets: a Coffee Basket, a Wine Basket, a Grandparents Basket, a BBQ/Cooking Basket, and a Downieville Local Basket, filled with goods and gift certificates to local businesses. By about noon, the Community Hall had folks placing their red tickets into the bowl by their basket of choice. Some of the larger ticket investments later did happen to pay off!

If the name did not give it away, this reunion is historic because it is the centennial reunion of Downieville High School, commemorating 100 years since the first class graduated, the DHS Class of 1925. One of those graduates was Bertha (Sinnott) Reed. We wanted to recognize that Arlene (Reed) Thelen was in attendance, representing the unbroken chain between this reunion and the first Downieville High School graduates launched into the world. Also in attendance were members of the graduating class of 1955, this being their 70th reunion since graduating! We were honored to have them among us.

At two o’clock, James Berardi, Principal of Downieville School, began giving very comprehensive and engaging school tours. So much has changed, including vast technology upgrades to rival any school in the state. The things that have not changed: the taxidermy of the science lab (including the raptor overseeing all experiments), the lockers, and Mr. Fillo’s shop. That shop is a time capsule, causing many of us to reminisce about outlandish projects, like cutting up a teacher’s donated small Honda car with a torch and other never-to-be-duplicated endeavors.

At 4:00 PM, The Reunion Bar opened, and many of the already milling attendees began to migrate inward, both to claim their free drink as a reunion attendee and to enjoy the displays around the room, including several old sports uniforms and yearbook pages. The attendees began finding their place in the dining space behind the community center with tables decorated with class portraits, encouraging those of a particular year to sit and find themselves.

At 6:30, Sabrina’s at the Forks served us a delicious meal with main dish selections of Lemon Chicken breast, Teriyaki Chicken thighs, or Vegetarian Pasta Bake. For each main dish, we all had Caesar salad, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, and a roll. Then the Butter Me Up Bakery provided delicious brownies and cookies for dessert. The Downieville Community Hall’s newly renovated professional kitchen proved to be an easy space for several team members to work together.

After dinner, our beginning MC was Donald Costa (‘60). He introduced the Reunion Committee Members, starting with:

Don Costa - 1960

Joyce Pray White - 1961 (been involved for at least 25 years and is RE-RETIRING)

Karen Brett Galan - 1963

Don Yegge - 1964

Larry Fenkell - 1965

Jenny Wiswell Heston – 1985, Willing to be leader (VOLUNTEERS?)

Sadly, there was no one from the graduating classes of the 1940s. However, the following graduates represented the oldest attending classes:

Earlene Wackford Folsom – 1954

Peggy (Negus) Bopp – 1955

Wilber Thompson – 1955

Denis Hughes – 1955

John Post – 1957

Jack Marshall – 1958

And attending the reunion from the furthest away were:

Cory Peterman – (Loyalton grad) Rome, Italy, 6,107 miles

Rae Yegge Powell - 1974 Somerdale, N.J, 2,414 miles

Peggy Negus Bopp - 1955 Daytona Beach, Fla, 2,361 miles

Ron Smith - 1982 Fairbanks, Alaska, 2,053 miles

Kim Brett Kirk 1971 Covington, Tennessee, 1,725 miles

After these and the Raffle, Supervisor Lee Adams spoke. It was a beautiful tribute to our entire region.

We all had an amazing time at the Downieville School 2025 Centennial Reunion!It was a joy to see everyone hugging, talking, and the laughter! My cheeks still ache!Thank you so much to everyone who helped. There are several people to recognize. These folks were instrumental and supportive in making our Downieville 2025 Centennial Reunion a tremendous success!

Joyce White, Karen Galen, Don Costa, Don Yegge & Larry Finkle. Thank you for wrapping me into your committee and for all your hard work!

Cindy McCreary and Sierra Hardware: for selling tickets with our online tool and giving vital technical support on Saturday!

Sabrina of Sabrina’s at the Forks and her team, for their delicious food! With...

Dale McClellan, for jumping in as chef with Sabrina’s team, and I do believe he and Sabrina boiled and peeled five dozen eggs for our breakfast!

Autumn Barry’s Butter Me Up Bakery for her delicious desserts.

Terri (Watson) McClellan, for being the day-of registration desk support and my hands and feet!

Steve Folsom, Downieville Fire Auxillary bartender & community center building support.

The whole Downieville Volunteer Fire Department for setup, breakdown, and cleaning of the back alley.

Patti Reiswig Gingg, for carefully minding our souvenir store all day!

Kim (Brett) Kirk, for helping with decor, getting us ready, and giving us all needed breaks!

Kathy (Rouse) Arnoldi, of River Drift Designs, for making our Souvenir mugs, magnets, and T-Shirts on shortened time!

Lee Brown, for transporting reunion folks to Goodyears Schoolhouse Museum to see the amazing mining exhibit!

Goodyears Schoolhouse Museum and Wells Witmer for opening up ahead of schedule for us!

Dave Marshall, for keeping the museum open and for the historical photo disk.

Michael Taylor of Downieville River Inn, for taking reunion attendees on seven-person bicycle tours around town last weekend!

Jamie Berardi, Principal of Downieville School, for giving very educational school tours! So much has changed, except for the lockers and Mr. Fillo’s shop. That place is a time capsule!!

Lee Adams, for his eloquent speech and for putting into words how we all feel when we come home.

Dorr Heston, for helping me carry all kinds of heavy things this year, tangible or not, helping with set up & final clean up, and for mopping the Downieville Community Center floor for the third reunion in a row.Without Dorr, Jenny wouldn’t be able to do any of this.

And most of all, thank you to all 148 of you who attended the reunion!! (I suspect there were a few more former students in town that we didn’t get to see at dinner. Maybe 2030?) Without all of you, this is just an empty, beautiful Community Hall with fantastic food! It is all of you participating that makes this an event worth attending. Thank you for coming!

And for all those we may have forgotten, many thanks to you for your service to this Quinquennial Reunion!

To quote Lee Adams as he paraphrased Shakespeare’s Henry V with respect to those at the Battle of Agincourt:

“From this day to the ending of the world,

we in it shall be remembered—

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For those here today share a common bond. And those not here shall think themselves

cursed for missing this time and experience”