The first all-school reunion since United South Central Middle School closed in Kiester took place at the Kiester Town & Country Center Saturday as part of Kiester Days.

The reunion spanned the class of 1933 to the class of 1991, when the last class graduated from South Central High School. About 500 people attended, including George Lorenz, 95, who represented the class of 1933 at the reunion. Guests came from as far as New York, Texas, Alaska and California.

Especially now that the school is closed, there was talk among those attending that this could be the last all-school reunion in Kiester, but Gloria Pederson and others were hopeful that the traditions of the school will continue.

“I think that people know that this is no longer a school,” said Pederson,  treasurer of the school reunion committee. Pederson is a 1979 graduate. “I think it’s a little bit sad for people. I think they’re very glad that they’re being able to come in and tour.”

There are still display cases with Kiester High School letter jackets in the old school, now the Kiester Town & Country Center. Pictures of each graduating class still hang in the hallways, and school songs and chants were taped to walls.

“This is a piece of history,” James Meyer, a 1961 graduate said of the school. Meyer said he, his father, Evert, and son James make up one of the few three generation families to graduate from the school.

Past reunions have been more formal, but Pederson described this year’s event as more of a social gathering. The last all-school reunion in Kiester was about 10 years ago. 

Alumni could buy Kiester High School Bulldogs shirts and South Central Warriors shirts.

The last graduating class of Kiester High School was around 1987, and then the school consolidated with Bricelyn to form South Central High School.

In 1991, the last class graduated from South Central High School, as the schools joined with Wells to become United South Central. The school in Kiester was the middle school until it closed about a year ago.

“It’s tough,” said Earl Iverson, a 1963 graduate, of being at the first reunion since the school closed. He’s lived in Kiester all his life.

Alan Hochreiter, a 1967 graduate, paged through a collection of scrapbooks with old newspaper clippings looking for articles from when he played sports. He also said he kept his own scrapbook at home. “It just brings back memories.”

Hochreiter, now a mail carrier in Omaha, Neb., said he’s looking forward to seeing the people in his class to see how everyone had changed. He said he graduated with a class of about 36 people, so he said they had formed a special bond.

“That’s why you come back to a place like this: hoping that you see your classmates,” Hochreiter said.

“I think probably more of this is a social factor when we get together as classmates and just discuss old times,” Hochreiter said.

Hochreiter met with some of his classmates at a house in Kiester on Saturday night to reminisce with some of his classmates afterwards.

In the gym and other parts of the school, old recordings of the Kiester High School band and choir, and Sime said it was sentimental to listen to the recordings.

Sime, a resident of Lincoln, Neb. said he also had a family reunion over the weekend.

Doug Trytten, now one of the owners of the Kiester Town & Country Center, sold bricks as a donation for maintaining the building, and other board members were also selling homecoming pins. He said the school needs a lot of maintenance, and the board is looking into future opportunities for the school building.