After COVID-19 delay, Woodstock High School to hold centennial celebration on Sept. 25

Woodstock High School turned 100 years old last year, and the school will celebrate its centennial birthday on Sept. 25, officials said.

The school originally was built in 1921, but its centennial celebration was pushed back because of disruptions tied to COVID-19, according to a news release Friday from Woodstock School District 200.

The event will begin at 2 p.m. at Woodstock High and will be lead by a team of current and former staff and students, according to the release.

“As a Blue Streak alumnus, the third generation in my family to attend Woodstock High School, and the father of a recent graduate, I know what this school has meant to so many in our community and to those graduates who’ve moved elsewhere,” Superintendent Mike Moan said in the release. “It’s a place that we’re all very proud of.”

As part of the event, the school will honor the first recipients of the WHS Distinguished Alumni Award, according to the release. The award will go to those who have demonstrated “significant and noteworthy accomplishments in their chosen careers and/or have made positive contributions to society.”

There will be three winners this year, according to the release. Those three will be Sgt. Salvador Carbajal, Bradley Corson and Nancy Larson.

Carbajal graduated in 2008 and joined the U.S. Marines, according to the release. He has been deployed four times. Corson was the valedictorian of the class of 1979 and has been a high-ranking executive at ExxonMobil.

Larson graduated in 1974 and has toured Europe with a dance troupe. She then established child care programs for the U.S. Army and won an award for her effort.

To help with the occasion, volunteers and students have collected and organized school memorabilia from the past century, according to the release. There is a dedicated alumni room full of photographs, trophies and yearbooks, among other things. This will be open for public viewing on Sept. 25.

There also will be performances by the high school band, choir and orchestra, according to the release.