After an absense of several years, the Ellsworth High School Alumni Banquet will take place Saturday, May 25, at the Ellsworth American Legion Hall. The Ellsworth Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6485 and Ellsworth American Legion Post 174 worked together to revive it.

The alumni banquet started many years ago, but due to lack of volunteers to organize the event, it ended. After many requests were made to start it up again, the Legion and VFW decided to organize the banquet themselves.

The first priority of both organizations was to form a committee. A small committee was formed, including Doug Stefek (Class of 1970), Fran (Soukup) Reiter (Class of 1973), Jose Rodriguez (Class of 2000) and Melissa Taylor. The four have been working since January to make sure they present an event for all EHS alumni to enjoy. “This year’s events will be somewhat different from events in the past, as we decided to not have a dance or live band,” Taylor said. “We wanted to offer a simple meal, time to socialize and to just gather and celebrate what makes Ellsworth great.”

The Legion will open its doors at 2:30 p.m. for social hour. Alumni are invited meet at the Legion at 5:30 p.m. to cruise Main Street (Douglas Avenue) before the banquet begins.

At 6 p.m., Kurt Krupp (Class of 2004) will start the banquet with the singing of the National Anthem. Emcee for the night will be KWCH Chief Meteorologist Ross Janssen (Class of 2000). There will also be a special performance by the Alumni Band, who will play the Ellsworth Fight Song.

The meal will be catered by Maupin BBQ, owned by Barry Maupin and Nikki (Belt) Maupin (Class of 1991). They will serve brisket, smoked mac- aroni and cheese, green beans and a roll.

Following the meal, doors will open to the public. Guests will be allowed to continue to reminisce with former classmates and friends until 10 p.m. There will be a small cash bar available from 2-10 p.m.

Kendra (Pruitt) Ploutz (Class of 1992), Ellsworth Jr./Sr. High School Student Council Sponsor, offered to conduct tours of the school before social hour from noon-2 p.m.

The committee has also been working with Refine Design owners Rick Soukup (Class of 1985) and Deanna Soukup on event T-shirts. Prices for shirts range from $15 to $33, with a selection of short sleeve, long sleeve, sweatshirts or hoodies.

T-shirt orders should be placed directly through Refine Design, with May 8 being the last day to place orders.

Tickets for the banquet and social hour are $20 per person and are on sale now.

Tickets can be purchased at Refine Design, Raised Rustic and Hattie Jo’s Coffee House, all in Ellsworth.

Alumni are also be able to mail their payment to the Ellsworth American Legion, P.O. Box 111, Ellsworth, KS 67439.

For those who wish to mail their payment, their ticket(s) will be available for pickup at the American Legion the day of the event starting at 2:30 p.m. Ticket sales will end May 1.

For those wishing to attend after the meal, a $5 fee will be collected at the door.

“When the committee first met, they decided to keep the alumni banquet on the traditional weekend, as it has always been on Memorial Day weekend,” Taylor said.

“Having it this weekend provides a long threeday weekend for the people out of town to travel. We also wanted to tie into the American Legion Memorial Day ceremony that is held at the Legion every year.

Alumni are invited to attend this year’s ceremony that starts at 10:30 a.m., followed by the freewill donation lunch at the American Legion building.”