What once was a dormant organization for graduates of the former Somerset Holy Trinity High School has been revived and is playing an active role in ensuring continuation of a nearly 200-year tradition of Catholic education in Perry County.
An annual dinner and other fundraisers in 2024 enabled the Holy Trinity Alumni Association to contribute $7,500 toward an addition to Holy Trinity Elementary School, which will be completed in time for the 2025-2026 academic year. The space will include six new classrooms and a separate early childhood center. The school currently has 191 students in kindergarten through eighth grade and 36 preschool students and anticipates growth in both areas, especially the preschool.
The alumni group also awarded $1,000 scholarships for postsecondary education to Holy Trinity graduates Jacob Householder and Aleah White, gave $2,500 toward furniture for the school expansion and donated $500 to the school latchkey program for supplies and $300 for a pie baking contest at the annual parish garden party in June.
This year’s alumni dinner will be at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23 in the school gym. Home and School Association members will provide the food, beer will be available for purchase and those attending may bring a bottle of wine. The cost is $30 per person.
Besides the dinner, the association’s other fundraisers included a garage sale in May, a Christmas sale in December, a football pool for one of Ohio State’s postseason games and euchre tournaments that took place throughout the winter, said association chair Eve Smith. The group’s other officers are Tina Boyer, co-chair and Kim Purkey, treasurer.
“We don’t have regular meetings, but all these events serve the purpose of enabling the school’s alumni and others to have get-togethers and raise funds,” Smith said.
“The high school closed more than 50 years ago, so the number of its living alumni is steadily declining. It’s probably about 100 now,” she said. “As that number grew smaller, the association became less active and eventually didn’t exist.
“I got involved with it about seven years ago when Father (Stephen) Carmody (OP), the pastor at the time, requested that it be revived. I was already on the parish advisory council and Home and School Association board, so it made sense to be part of the group.
“The old association had a golf outing and an auction in addition to the dinner. We decided the most important thing was to bring back the dinner, not as a fundraiser but as a way for Holy Trinity graduates and others to socialize, reminisce and recognize the school’s long history.”
Holy Trinity School was founded in 1830 by the congregation now known as the Dominican Sisters of Peace. One of its members, Sister Nancy Ames, OP, is the school’s vice principal.
The alumni association sponsors a fund administered by The Catholic Foundation and known as the Peggy Ryan Perpetual Endowment, which receives funds from donations, estate planning and fundraising.
Money from the endowment is disbursed each year to meet specific needs of the school as determined by its principal. The current principal, 1976 Holy Trinity graduate Bill Noll, is retiring from that position next year after more than a decade. He became principal after a long career in the U.S. Navy ended in 2012.
“It is often said that the backbone of a great Catholic school is its alumni and this holds true at Holy Trinity,” Noll said. “By the time our alumni banquet arrives, we will have moved into the new classrooms and I will be delighted to personally give anyone a tour of the new addition so they can be firsthand witnesses of our progress.”
Anyone interested in attending the dinner may send a check for $30 per attendee to Holy Trinity Alumni Association, Post Office Box 642, Somerset, OH 43783. Those wishing to donate to the endowment are asked to send a separate check and mark it for The Peggy Ryan Perpetual Endowment. The association has a Facebook page at “Holy Trinity School Alumni.”