Gathering 2013

Silvertip Alumni Network

If you spot incorrect or missing information, please contact us at webmaster@silvertips.org so we can correct it.

Last Updated on 06/17/14

Posted 06/17/14: Once again in May of 2015, we'll be returning to Noble Park of the Kern County Shriner's Club, for our 3rd Gathering Of The Bears. The date will be Saturday, May 9, 2015. As in the past, this is the Saturday before Mother's Day. We'll be looking for great weather and a fun-filled evening with food, laughter, music, awards, and the chance to renew old acquaintances, and make new friends

Posted 05/25/14: 2014 Scholarship Recipients: This year's SilverTips Alumni Network scholarships for $1,000 each were awarded on Thursday night, May 22, 2014, to Seniors Liliana Calderon and Denise Alvarez.

Liliana comes from an Arvin family with five girls and one boy, where she is the second eldest child. Liliana's father is a truck driver for Agrimix and her mother is a packer for Grimmway farms. Liliana has a 3.9 GPA and is ranked 10th in her graduating class. Liliana wants to study biochemistry CSUB, with a long term goal of becoming a nutritionist. Liliana received the scholarship memorializing Vietnam War Veterans Alvin Bozarth (AHS '65), Kenneth Johnson (AHS '66), Jimmy Montana (AHS '67) and, Ronald Youngblood (AHS 65). All four of these young men were Killed In Action in Vietnam.

Denise comes from an Arvin family with three girls and one boy. Her father is a farm worker and her mother is a stay at home mom. Denise has an older sister who is already attending college, so the financial pressure on her family will only grow more fierce this Fall. Denise has a 3.8 GPA and is ranked 13th in her graduating class. Denise wants to study business while taking a minor in music. Her life goal is to own her own recording company and to be able to record her own music as well. Denise received the scholarship memorializing Kimberly Reed (AHS '82) who died this past year, after being in poor health for many years.

We expect to hear great things out of both of these young ladies, a few years down the road.

Posted 02/03/14: Each year the SilverTips Alumni Network gives out a scholarship to a new graduate and we select Arvin High School Alumni and/or community members who have made a significant impact with their lives, and brought positive recognition to their alma mater. This year we will be giving out a scholarship again and we will be looking to honor some folks with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In the years when we have a Gathering Of The Bears, we've tried to select recipients who live close enough to be able to attend with their friends and family. In years like this one, where we have no formal gathering, we've tried to select recipients who live in other states or countries and wouldn't likely miss out on the dinner anyway. Your part in these two efforts would be to donate money to our scholarship fund and/or to nominate some old Bear or Bears for their lifetime achievements. We'll be focusing on Bears (from out of the area) who are from classes from 1957-1960 or thereabouts. To donate or nominate, you can send donations to SilverTips Alumni Network, P.O. Box 21171, Bakersfield, CA 93390-1711, and you can send nominations to webmaster@silvertips.org. We appreciate your involvement in these two great efforts.

Posted 01/21/14: Our next Gathering Of The Bears is set for Bakersfield, California on Saturday, May 9, 2015. Until then you can stay up with the smaller 'Gatherings' of Bears that go on all the time on Facebook or go on in the real world and get chatted up on Facebook.

Posted 08/27/13: Just a reminder that we'll be offering an opportunity to Gather with fellow Arvin High School alumni on Sunday, October 13, 2013. We'll be doing two things that day that might interest you. First, we'll be having breakfast at the Black Bear Diner on California Avenue, in Bakersfield around 7:30 a.m. Second, after breakfast, those that want to are going to car pool to the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, CA. For more details, send your questions to webmaster@silvertips.org and we'll get back to you. For details on the Rose Bowl Flea Market, follow this blue hyperlink.

Posted 06/01/13: Our next Gathering Of The Bears is set for Bakersfield, California on Saturday, May 9, 2015. Until then you can stay up with the smaller 'Gatherings' of Bears that go on all the time on Facebook or go on in the real world and get chatted up on Facebook. In addition to multiple class sites and multiple alumni sites on Facebook, there is also a page devoted entirely to Gathering Of The Bears. Be sure to 'like' us the next time you're signed on.

Posted 05/14/13: Recap Of This Years GOTB: Approximately 200 old Bears were on hand for this year's Gathering Of The Bears. They enjoyed a wonderful evening filled with music, friends, food, drink, laughter, gifts, and awards. James C. Williams (AHS '72), SilverTips President served as Emcee for the evening. Lifetime Achievement Awards went to Houston Townsend (AHS '52), Bill Atchley (AHS '54), Charles Toy (AHS '54), Calvin Meek (AHS '55), Clara 'Petty' Meek (AHS '55), Gary Sedam (Faculty), Rosalie Abacherli (Faculty), and a $1,000 scholarship was given in memory of the late Herbert 'Dean' Perry (AHS '65) to Marisa Rodriquez (AHS '13). Marisa, her parents, and her two siblings were on hand to enjoy the evening and thank the crowd.

Posted 04/18/13 Scholarship Memorial: Each year the SilverTips give a scholarship to a graduating Arvin High School student in memory of an alumnus of Arvin High School. In 2011 we honored the memory of Jock Nicodemus (AHS '71) and in 2012 we honored the memory of Robin 'Cantrell' Walden (AHS '71) in this fashion.

We're pleased to announce that this year's SilverTips Alumni Network scholarship for $1,000, will be presented in memory of Herbert 'Dean' Perry (AHS '65). I'm sure many of you knew Dean and we hope you'll attend the Gathering Of The Bears on May 11th to join us in remembering him.

Posted 04/15/13 President's Award Recipient: The 2013 SilverTips Alumni Network President's Award recipient is Mr. Gary Sedam. Gary was a teacher and coach at Arvin High School in the late '60s and into the '70s. He was the AHS junior varsity Head Football coach and the AHS men's varsity Basketball Coach. Gary and his family will be with us on Saturday, May 11, 2013, for the Gathering Of The Bears. Gary will be honored that night along with our Lifetime Achievement Award recipients. Be sure to make plans now to be present if you want to get to see and talk to some of the old coaches and teachers who are sure to be in the crowd.

Posted 03/30/13 SilverTips Alumni Network Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients: Our selection committee met earlier today for almost an hour and a half to go over the list of this year's nominees. We've had a good response of nominations in recent weeks and in the preliminary going there were 25 alumni under consideration for this year's recognition. In the past two years, we've recognized two individuals per year. We have more than doubled the number of honorees this year by expanding the list of honorees from 2 to 5. Still, the challenge for the selection committee was to pare the initial list of 25 down to a more manageable size. Sadly, some of that was accomplished for them. After the initial read-through of the nominees, various members of the committee noted that 3 of the nominees were already deceased. The SilverTips have historically chosen to honor deceased classmates through our annual scholarship program. Consequently, the names of those three deceased alumni will be transferred onto the SilverTips Alumni Scholarship list for future consideration.
That left 22 names of alumni, ranging from members of the Class of 1952 through the Class of 1978, a span of 26 years and with members ranging in age from 79 years to 53 years. A big part of how the committee filtered this 'large' distinguished group was by age. Each committee member is painfully aware of the passing years, and along with the passing years the passing of many alumni from some of the earliest Arvin High School classes. So, despite the fact that all of the nominees have distinguished themselves, and will remain on the ballot for future annual consideration, there is a clear bias here toward selection of members of the earliest graduating classes. The committee offers no apology for that approach. Truthfully, there would have been more from those first four classes, but as we noted earlier, we learned that some under consideration were already deceased. So, if you nominated one of the other alumni who were not selected this year, you can take solace in the fact that their names remain on the nominations list and will continue to be considered each year.

Without a lot of further fanfare, this year's honorees will be: Houston Townsend (AHS '52), Bill Atchley (AHS '54), Charles Toy (AHS '54), and Calvin Meek (AHS '55). These alumni will be joined by a long-time faculty member who, while not an Arvin High School Alumna, was certainly a fixture at Arvin High School during 4 different decades, Rosalie Abacherli. As we've previously noted, former Arvin High School teacher and coach, Gary Sedam, will receive our 'President's Award'. The selection committee will be contacting each of these honorees over the next few days to determine if they are able to attend. In the meantime, feel free to congratulate them and share this news with other alumni who might be interested in coming to see these people being honored. We have a little over 40 days until the 2013 rendition of The Gathering Of The Bears, on Saturday, May 11, 2013. Now's the time to begin to talk it The Gathering up, purchase your tickets, and encourage your friends and family to attend. As usual, all of the proceeds go to fund the local programs in the Arvin-Lamont area, currently being supported by the SilverTips Alumni Network.

Posted 03/05/13 Lifetime Achievement Recognition: We're still receiving nominations for this year's Lifetime Achievement Awards. SilverTips Alumni Network recognizes AHS alumni and AHS community members each year, either at our Biennial dinner or through our web site and the local newspapers. If you'd like to nominate someone for consideration, drop us a line at webmaster@silvertips.org with the person's name, class year, details about their life, and why you think they should receive special recognition. Currently we're focusing on graduating classes from '52 through '59, in an effort to provide recognition while the recipients are still around to enjoy it. You do not have to be a SilverTips member to nominate and there's no cost to you. So, think about those Bears you know in their late 60s and beyond who may have been overlooked in the past, and submit their name today.

Posted 02/05/13 Lifetime Achievement Award Nominations: Once again this year we'll be selecting a number of recipients for recognition of their lifetime achievements at the Gathering of the Bears. If you have someone you'd like to nominate, you can mail their name, their connection to Arvin High School or the Arvin High School Community, a brief biography, and why YOU think they should be honored to: SilverTips Alumni Network, Post Office Box 21171, Bakersfield, CA 93390 (write it on the back of your ticket order form). You could also email us the same information at webmaster@silvertips.org. We'll be making decisions and announcing this year's honorees after our meeting in March, so there's still plenty of time to get your nomination in.

Posted 01/30/13: Gathering Of The Bears 2013 Ticket Order Form

Posted January 27, 2013: The tickets for this event will be available to order on January 30, 2013. The order form will be posted here, the Gathering of the Bears website, and on Facebook. Be sure to let other classmates know and be sure to let AHS alumni who are veterans know we'll be honoring them that evening. It will be a wonderful time and the proceeds to go to a very worthy causes benefitting Arvin High School and the surrounding communities.

Posted December 16, 2012: We had 'the usual suspects' show up to help with the planning of our Gathering of The Bears. An as usual, the one things we could always use more of is volunteers. So, if you wanted to help and couldn't make the meeting the other night, there's still plenty of opportunity to help out. We'll be meeting again in January for follow-up on the tasks we have to take care of immediately and to see what else needs to be done over the coming months. We'll post the date and time of that meeting here and on Facebook as soon as we firm it up.

Were setting this us at Noble Park (Kern County Shriner's Club) on 'P' Street. We've settled once again on a Tri-Tip dinner with all the trimmings; the price will be $12 per person. Again, there will be a short program 1) honoring our Lifetime Achievement Award winners, 2) naming our Annual Scholarship Winner for 2013, and 3) a special Tribute to our Vietnam Veterans. As it was in 2011, the major 'entertainment' will be you visiting and getting reacquainted with other Old Bears.

What can you do to help out immediately? 1) Save the date; 2) tell other classmates and community members and convince them to attend; 3) post the information in all your social media outlets; and 4) drop us an email at webmaster@silvertips.org if you can help out the day of, even if it's only for one hour. This event only rolls around one time every two years. We'll do all we can to advertise and make it a memorable evening, but we need your help to spread the word.

If you or your business would like to act as an event sponsor, you can contact us at 661-374-BEAR (2327) or shoot us an email at webmaster@silvertips.org to get involved on a financial basis. As usual, the proceeds from this event go to sponsor our annual scholarship and other worthwhile programs at Arvin High School or in the local community. This is a great evening and you'll see Arvin High School Alumni from all across the years. Plan now to be a part of making this event another huge success...

Posted November 27, 2012: We'll be having our first GOTB 2013 planning session on Friday, December 14, 2012 at the home of our President, James 'Weasel' Williams (AHS '72). James and his wife Teri will be hosting. There will be food and beverages to enjoy while we plan. If you want to get involved (and many of you say you do) in helping stage this biennial Gathering (May of 2013), we need to see you there. To host a larger Gathering, we need more help each time. At this meeting, we'll be discussing the menu, the ticket pricing, honors, awards, and the evening's other events. Our last GOTB drew in nearly 300 Bears from around the country. We expect this one to be both bigger and better. For more information or to RSVP (so we can have plenty of food and drinks on hand), email webmaster@silvertips.org

Posted August 15, 2012: Kern County Shrine Club, 700 South 'P' Street, Bakersfield, CA, Saturday, May 11, 2013; gates open at 5p. Save The Date and tell all your friends so they can plan to be there.

webmaster@silvertips.org