Below information is provided by the Dunbar School Alumni Association. Please contact [email protected] with questions regarding the event.
This year, the Dunbar School Alumni Association will celebrate the history of the school, its faculty and staff, and former students. A celebration of the 100th anniversary of Dunbar School will take place Nov. 19, 2022.
The association has planned a full day of festivities to celebrate the legacy of Dunbar School. The festivities will begin at Dunbar School, 509 E. Elm, at 10 a.m. The building is owned by St. Francis Ministries, which will host Dunbar alumni and guests for the unveiling of a 100th anniversary plaque, sponsored by Salina Public Schools.
St. Francis Ministries will be presented with a framed watercolor print of Dunbar School painted by the oldest Dunbar alum, Dr. Virginia Belle Hill Ricard.
The prints were made available through a grant funded by the Horizons Grant Program of the Salina Arts and Humanities Foundation. Guests will also have the opportunity to tour Dunbar School at the end of the presentation.
Alumni and guests will attend a luncheon at St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church at noon. Following the luncheon, the celebration will continue with a 100th anniversary program at Kansas Wesleyan University in Fitzpatrick Auditorium at 2 p.m. The afternoon program will feature youth from across the community.
Students in Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts will lead the posting of colors and the flag salute in honor of the late Robert C. Caldwell, who was a teacher and principal at Dunbar, as well as a Scout Master for Troop 10.
The theme of the 100th anniversary, “Our horizon is the universe,” is taken from a quote by poet and writer Paul Laurence Dunbar, for whom the school was named. A Dunbar School proclamation will be read in honor of the school’s anniversary. The afternoon program will include the history of Dunbar School and a message from alumnus Oliver Green, whose aunt Bessie Green was one of the teachers who taught the first year Dunbar opened. His mother, Regina Green, was also a teacher at Dunbar.
The Dunbar School Alumni Association will also honor the descendants of former teachers and staff, as well as alumni who will be in attendance. All the festivities are free and open to the public.
Attendees are asked to RSVP for any of the festivities that they plan to attend on the DSAA website: https://www.dunbarschoolsalina.com/rsvp
