Old yearbooks, new lanyards and an overstuffed envelope of Dunkin’ gift cards were the totems that ruled the day when nearly 70 Harrison-Morton Middle School alumni arrived to see their old school and collect donations for its current students.
News of the Allentown School District’s plans to construct a new home for East Side students spurred Alexis Stengel, who spent her junior high years at Harrison-Morton between 1964 and 1966, to organize the alumni tour.
“I thought it would be great to be able to go and see it one more time,” Stengel said.
Advertising on Facebook pages geared toward Dieruff High alumni and the Friends of Buck Boyle Park generated about 60 RSVPs, but Stengel said the crowd who showed up last Friday numbered nearly 70 and included an 87-year-old Class of 1953 graduate.
First-year Harrison-Morton Principal Spencer Cameron told The Morning Call he was “so excited” for alumni to join. Stengel thanked school staff for the welcome, including a gift of new lanyards.
School staff laid out yearbooks and displayed sports trophies in the auditorium for the gathered alumni to peruse. They then took group photos and headed out into the halls, where half a dozen current students joined administrators in helping direct them.
Familiar spaces “suddenly looked so different,” Stengel said. Although the classrooms seemed smaller and the hallways more narrow than in her memories, she noted several key additions from her time in the school, including air conditioning, lockers and a library.
Classrooms now feature technology like overhead projectors and TVs, but Stengel acknowledged that the modernity of the facility is relative both to an alumni’s memories and to other school buildings.
The Harrison-Morton building dates to 1874, and has faced many maintenance issues over the years, including last year’s flood damage from a burst pipe. As work proceeds on the new East Side K-8 school, the ultimate fate of Harrison-Morton is still unsettled.
“We will engage the public and the community in any decision-making regarding the future of Harrison-Morton,” district spokesperson Melissa Reese said.
To give back to current students, Stengel collected $5 Dunkin’ gift cards to donate to the school’s rewards program.
“I had a manilla envelope that was just bursting at the seams,” she said.
Cameron said in an email that the donation “will allow us to continue to build in incentives to recognize and celebrate our learners for all of the great work they do each day.”
Adding that he was “so appreciative” of the alumni for their visit, Cameron said: “We look forward to continuing to partner with them in the future as we work toward deeper community engagement in support of our students, their families, and the rich tradition and school pride at Harrison-Morton Middle School.”
The generosity of alumni, including one who moved to Florida and couldn’t attend the tour but sent a $100 check to buy gift cards, impressed Stengel. She said the “friendly, loving atmosphere” and the “kindness of students toward each other” are what she remembers from her time at Harrison-Morton.
Like Stengel, many of the alumni who went on the tour don’t live in their old First and Sixth Ward neighborhoods, but she said the effort people took to travel in showed “their hearts were still there.”