LIVING HISTORY
seasoned wrestlers to Westwood. We went from contenders
to rebuilding. When they moved wrestling to the spring semester,
38
I didn’t wrestle. … Most of the sports teams suffered
a similar fate.”
“It was probably even more traumatic for those assigned
to Westwood,” he adds, “because those students had to deal
with a new campus, new clubs, sports and programs and had
severed daily interactions.”
But that separation ended when graduates from both
schools formed a joint reunion committee. Reunions have
been held every five years. A large group gathered in 2019
for the 40th reunion, a four-day affair that culminated in
a cookout and picnic at Museum Pointe Park on South
Hutchinson Island.
“I am just glad that it came together,” Octavia Clark Little
says of the recently formed scholarship committee that collected
funds from the Class of 1979 and awarded five scholarships.
“Every little bit helps when you are going to college.
Even with the COVID pandemic, we were still able to help
these students.”
Hollett, an Air Force Academy graduate, says that there
are many successful alumni from Central and Westwood and
that he wanted to tap into their successes and provide an avenue
to help the graduates from both schools. The association
raised enough money strictly from alumni donors to award
five 2020 scholarships.
“With the attainment of nonprofit status in 2019, our
efforts to provide scholarships to select graduates of each
school are unprecedented and reflective of our desire to help
future graduates of our alma maters,” Hollett adds.
Applicants have to have at least a 3.0 GPA and provide an
essay on what they needed to overcome to finish high school.
The scholarship committee also considers test scores and
Reunion committee member Sharon Andric walks to band class with
Monty Musgrave in 1978. Andric played the bassoon in the Fort Pierce
Central Band and was a spinner with its rifle corps.
Larry Hollett,
who stayed
at Central his
senior year, participates
in an
all-out, paperwad
war prior
to the teacher’s
arrival for class.
financial need in selecting its recipients.
Fort Pierce Central grad Rolvens Jean-Baptiste, who
received a $1,000 scholarship, is at Florida State University
majoring in accounting. He completed a number of college
classes at Indian River State College prior to his high school
graduation through participation in the dual enrollment
program.
Haley O’Connor, a Fort Pierce Central graduate and another
$1,000 award winner, is at Indian River State College
working toward a nursing degree.
The third $1,000 scholarship recipient, Westwood alum
Camya Rogers, also is studying nursing at IRSC. Connor
O’Sullivan and Olivia Offerdahl, both of whom graduated
from Fort Pierce Central, received $500 awards.
“We always thought we should give back to our community,”
says Sharon Andric Norton, a Central grad and member
of the scholarship committee. “We wanted to help students
get their degrees and hoped they would come back to the
area to work.”