PORT ANGELES – A good-bye tea is planned in June at Roosevelt Middle School to remember it before it becomes an elementary school.
The “Remembering Roosevelt” tea will be from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. June 13 at the school on 106 Monroe Road in Port Angeles.
It will be free and open to the community.
A slide show featuring pictures and memories of the school will be displayed throughout the come-and-go event.
“We have been going through old yearbooks, scrapbooks and slides, and the history of Roosevelt as a junior high and middle school is amazing,” said Mimi Tiderman, a Roosevelt teacher and one of the Remembrance Tea’s organizers.
“There are so many people still in this community that attended this school or Roosevelt Junior High.”
The site has been the location of Roosevelt Middle School, one of two in Port Angeles, since 1979, but it is scheduled to become Roosevelt Elementary School in September.
Stevens Middle School will then be the only building for seventh and eighth grade students in the Port Angeles School District.
Roosevelt Middle School was named after President Theodore Roosevelt, who was the president to set aside land that later became the Olympic National Park.
The teddy bear was, according to tradition, named in honor of Roosevelt and thus became the mascot of the school, said Lynnette Crouse, who is heading up the tea.
“The high school at the time was also named Roosevelt, which is, of course, where the Roughriders come from,” Crouse said, referring to the Port Angeles High School football team.
The Rough Riders was the informal name given to the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment.
Roosevelt was second in command of the regiment.
As an elementary school the building, which will be called Roosevelt Elementary School, will house those from Fairview Elementary School, as well as other students transferred there through the elementary school realignment.
Fairview will close in June.
