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Embracing
Katzenbach's past New museum greets alumni
Times of Trenton -
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
BY NICOLE CASTELLI
EWING -- More
than 600 alumni of the Katzenbach School for the Deaf
and their families gathered during the weekend to catch
up on old times and celebrate the opening of a museum
housing commemorative historical items documenting the
history of the school. Natalie Beckman, president of the
Katzenbach alumni association, said it took about two
years to collect donations for the museum and to plan
this year's reunion, the school's first since 1993
Beckman, who
graduated from Katzenbach in 1976, said the association
got the idea for the museum after seeing similar ones at
other schools. The museum documents the school's history
going back to when it opened in 1833 as the State
Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. She said it will be
"a good place to show outside people" what the school,
which offers a residential learning experience for deaf
students ages 5 to 21, is all about. The two-day reunion
also gave alumni and their families a chance to see
what's new with each other and the school. It included
alumni from as far back as the class of 1936, and from
as far away as Arizona and Colorado, Beckman said. It
wrapped up Saturday with a banquet at Angeloni's Cedar
Gardens in Hamilton.
The new museum
houses sports memorabilia and other artifacts that both
alumni and the school itself donated, Beckman said. She
said now that people have seen what the museum is all
about, "we're going to be getting a lot more (donations)
coming in."
"It sent chills up
and down people's spines," recalls Beckman of her
schoolmates' reaction to the museum. "It was thrilling."
While Beckman said she hopes to eventually make the
reunion an annual event, the next one is scheduled for
2008. |
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Katzenbach
holds second largest alumni reunion
Trentonian - Sunday, 08/06/2006
By JOE D’AQUILA , Staff Writer
EWING --
Hundreds of alumni gathered at the Marie H. Katzenbach
School for the Deaf yesterday morning, to look back on
old times and to welcome some new changes.
Those in attendance represented the past
several decades of the school’s classes, with graduates
from as far back as 1930 at the event.
"This will be quite the occasion since many of our
graduates live all over the country and haven’t seen
each other since they graduated," said Natalie Beckman,
president of the alumni association, before the event.
"We’re excited about what our alumni will see when they
get here." For many of the alumni it was the first
time seeing some of the advancements the school has made
in recent years.
The school now has a state-of-the-art distance learning
laboratory for enrollees to interact with other
students, and yesterday’s visitors learned of a new
technology center coming this fall.
But the main event yesterday was the school’s newest
edition geared to looking back at the past, as the New
Jersey School for the Deaf museum was dedicated with a
ribbon cutting ceremony.
The new museum houses some of the artifacts collected
over the long history of the school.
Founded in 1883 as the New Jersey School for the Deaf,
the institution changed names in 1965 to honor Marie
Katzenbach, a long time member of the State Board of
Education.
A focal point for the museum’s collection is an homage
to the success of the school’s sports steams over the
years.
Particularly notable among the teams was the football
squad from 1930, who not only went undefeated, but also
kept all of their opponents from scoring for the entire
season.
A similar unblemished record was posted by the school in
1932, when the team only allowed one touchdown all year.
Dennis Munn, chairman of the school’s museum committee,
said the collection came together after a lot of hard
work from a big group of people.
"I’m very lucky to have had a good committee to work
with, together as a team," Munn said. "They’re really a
wonderful committee to work with."
Munn also thanked the school’s superintendent Dennis
Russell for working with the committee on the museum,
and said he expected as many as 800 visitors yesterday.
And as visitors piled in and filed past, Munn said the
reaction to the exhibits showed they had hit the mark in
creating the museum.
"They get goose bumps seeing everything," Munn said of
the visiting alumni. "They remember all these things
from far back like flashbacks, and they enjoy
remembering the old times."
©The Trentonian 2006 |
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