At an annual SPUHS-AA dinner-reunion, “One night a lady of the Class of ‘44 came to me immediately and said ‘I want that El Solano!’ She gave the money right then and there and was thrilled to death... she couldn’t afford one when she was in school.” Harding feels that selling the yearbooks is “a service we’re providing, besides helping the association award scholarships.”Most of those yearbooks the association has received were copies required to be purchased by teachers with no inscriptions, but “Recently some have been returned by graduates,” who find they are only emotionally attached to the yearbook from their senior year. Right now the “big push” is for copies of El Solano from the 1960s and 1970s, and Harding believes that “someone out there told people they were available, and now they’re all gone.”The association is seeking more copies from any year, she added. “There are a lot stashed away at the homes of teachers or their surviving spouses, and we would be more than happy to receive their copies; we have people that are interested in buying them.” It’s not a surprise: Harding’s SPUHS-AA database has more than 20,000 names of those who attended - “they didn’t have to graduate, just attended” - SPHS, as well as The Academy.The SPUHS-AA was founded in 1982, and has awarded more than $63,000 in scholarships. Membership is open to anyone who attended SPHS as well as parents, teachers and friends.“If anyone has any copy or copies of the El Solano they would like to get rid of, we will pass them on to someone who needs or wants one for $50,” said Harding. For more information, write Harding care of the SPUHS-AA, P.O. Box 6, Santa Paula, CA 93061.
SPUHS Alumni Association raising scholarship funds with vintage El Solanos
April 25, 2007
Santa Paula High School
The Santa Paula Union High School Alumni Association has found new life for an old favorite: El Solano yearbooks benefit the SPUHS-AA scholarship fund, according to the organization’s president.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesThe Santa Paula Union High School Alumni Association has found new life for an old favorite: El Solano yearbooks benefit the SPUHS-AA scholarship fund, according to the organization’s president. The association has sold up to two dozen of the yearbooks over “probably four or five years” at $50 each, said SPUHS-AA President Beverly Harding. Harding is a third generation Santa Paula High School graduate (Class of ‘46), whose parents (Class of ‘24) and “Granddad” (Class of ‘08), siblings and other relatives are also SPHS grads.El Solano “means the east wind,” and the book of high school classmates, teachers and administrators has been published since 1900. The famous “Campus on the Hill” was The Academy when it was founded in 1870, and it became SPHS in 1890, said Harding.The association has “almost a complete set” of the yearbooks, kept for research purposes, including 1890 Academy and 1900 SPHS editions. But when the association started to become the recipient of various extra yearbook editions, SPUHS-AA directors decided to sell them to benefit the scholarship fund.Those who have purchased past El Solanos often have an interesting story: “We had one fellow who was raised at Limoneira” and graduated from SPHS in the 1930s, served in World War II, and now lives in the Bay area. “He called me and asked if it was possible to get a copy” of the yearbook. “He said when he was growing up his family was too poor, they couldn’t afford one for him,” Harding noted. “He said now he has enough money and sent me $200. He got four of them - one for each year he attended the high school - and was just thrilled to pieces!”
