By Maya Diedrich
On a cool spring afternoon in 1996 almost all of the members of Mini School filed into the small auditorium of Minnetonka High School to begin the Mini-School Recognition Night. As we walked in Dan Stevens (an old Mini-Schooler) & Bill Zastara were playing the bongo drums. It set a wonderful mood to start the evening off. Everyone settled down and Doug welcomed everyone, introduced the staff, and recognized the people that helped set up the night. He then went on to reflect on the past year, the people, and the history of Mini-School. The award ceremony followed soon after that. The staff gave out awards like “biggest pest” and “hard workers”.
There was also a surprise for Randy’s 50th Birthday. There was a slide show prepared for him showing him in the past to present years of Mini. A rocking chair was brought down for him to sit in to relax his old bones and a paddle was presented by Doug that was signed by everyone in Mini-School. The staff bought him a Crazy Creek chair for trips. The kids bought him and his wife a gift certificate to Grazzi’s, an Italian Restaurant. Everyone was excited for the secret and Randy seemed quite surprised.
Lester, the guest speaker, followed the Birthday celebration with her speech explaining her experience with Mini-School and what it meant to her. She participated in the program as a teacher for 16 years. She learned a lot from the experience and the people, and no doubt they learned tons from her too.
A few more awards were presented for “most turned around”, “good calendar sellers” and “sleepers”. The night was quickly winding down and the next thing on the agenda was to recognize the seniors which the 5 teachers did (Joanne, Randy, Doug, Pauline and Ramona) by finding a word they thought best described each individual senior and also a good memory of them throughout their time spent in Mini-School.
The rest of the night was rounded off by a slide show prepared by Clint, Kristi, Nicole and Molly. It was pictures of the past year in Mini-School. It set a nice mellow atmosphere as everyone thought of memories that they had of the past Mini-School year.
When the slide show ended, everyone mingled and enjoyed Randy’s Birthday cake and punch.