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CRYSTAL LAKE – With poster boards showing each decade, alumni from the St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic School gathered around and looked at class photos.
A celebration was held Saturday in honor of the school’s 90th anniversary.
St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic School Principal Gina Houston said she can’t wait for the 100th anniversary.
“I am sure St. Thomas will survive,” Houston said. “They are strong and have a highly qualified teaching staff, it’s a family atmosphere and people return. Many alumni here today, their own children are also alumni.”
The school serves kindergarten through eighth grade and has 276 students total and 62 students in preschool. The anniversary celebration will continue throughout the school year with events organized by a committee.
“That is what keeps our sense of family and community is that we are constantly returning and you feel comfortable returning,” Houston said. “We are 90 years young and going to be around for a long time. We have a lot to offer.”
The school began in a small church on Pierson Street in June 1927 with an enrollment of 100 students under the supervision of Dominican Sisters of Springfield.
A second building was added in 1958 and the two buildings were connected 15 years ago, adding a new gymnasium, music room and science lab, according to the school’s website. A new preschool building was added three years ago.
Mary Ann Weltzien, of Crystal Lake, said she hopes people can see the continuity and message of the school.
“The school has grown so much,” Weltzien, class of 1948, said. “When I was in school, the town of Crystal Lake I think only had around 5,000 people, so we had four classrooms and the sisters did a beautiful job.”
Carol McMillan Grivett, class of 1950, said she first attended a country school and would run home everyday because she didn’t want to be there. It wasn’t until she moved and went to St. Thomas that she found “a home.”
“I felt so safe and so taken care of,” McMillan Grivett said. “I started taking music piano lessons and started playing the organ in 1948, and I’m still playing – in fact, I played for our Mass tonight.”
McMillan Grivett said she hopes new students coming into the school know they are getting an example of what a Christian life should be, stressing being kind to one another and supportive.