Memories will come flooding back to those who attended the hallowed halls of Lumby's only high school.
Charles Bloom Secondary is hosting a 75th anniversary celebration Tuesday, April 29, from 4 to 7 p.m. There will be a formal ceremony at 5:30 p.m.
Throughout the event, there will be a Photo Reel of Bloom through the years playing; school tours, a yearbook display, grad jacket display, snacks and beverages, and presentation booths, plus more.
The school celebrates its 75 years and nine days after its official opening on April 20, 1950.
In the book The History of Schools and Other Learning Facilities in School District #22 (Vernon), a project of the Vernon Retired Teachers Heritage Committee, which resides as a resource book at the Vernon branch of the Okanagan Regional Library, the new Lumby High School was described in the dedication ceremony as "a very attractive building in a beautiful setting of trees."
It had five classrooms, offices for staff, home economics department, industrial shop and a large lunch room. The first principal was Mr. E. Gleave.
The school was named Charles Bloom Junior Senior High School in 1954 after Charles Bloom, who served on the local and district school boards for more than 20 years. The school was named Charles Bloom Junior Secondary in 1968 and, finally, Charles Bloom Secondary School in 1971.
Charles Bloom Secondary was the first school in the district to use the semester system, and was the only school in the local district 鈥� and just the second in B.C. 鈥� to offer a forestry program.
Charles Bloom was born in 1887 in Colorado, and immigrated to Canada in 1893 with his mother, who had family in the Harris Creek area.
He married Evelyn May in Vernon, and in 1921, Bloom owned and operated a garage, Bloom and Sigalet, in Lumby. That garage is credited with building Lumby's first school bus.
Bloom had little formal education but was a strong supporter of schools and learning. He readily helped enterprising types and needy families.
Bloom would donate the land the current school facility sits on.
He died Sept. 26, 1946, and is buried in the Lumby Cemetery.
