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Schools

Happy 75th Birthday, Maire!

Alumni, students, staff celebrate the milestone anniversary.

students got an unusual history lesson - and a break from the routine - Thursday when the school celebrated its 75th anniversary.

An assembly in the school gym marked the occasion and had kids learning about Lewis E. Maire, who was an eye doctor, father of nine and instrumental in the formation of the school district.

They also learned that farm animals once visited the school as part of its Maire Fair. The fair is still a community event held every three years (this year's is March 24), but the only animals today are the gold fish won in one of the classroom carnival games.

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About 15 Maire alumni and 300-plus students turned out to celebrate with a cake, a balloon-bearing, big, stuffed bear--Maire's mascot is the bear--and a pumpkin painted with a 75th depiction by art teacher Michael Heenan.

Maire, which opened in 1936 with "modern" desks, lockers and blackboards on a plot purchased for about $150,000, is 's fourth-oldest elementary school.

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A group of fourth- and fifth-graders learned and performed Maire's school song. And a slide show of photos, many of them now and then, showed old-school classrooms and today's, the previous playground and the new one built last year, a school nurse in white dress uniform, complete with a hat printed with a cross, and a table of medical instruments and more.

Alumni, including parents with current Maire students and school staffers, took the stage and sang happy birthday. A student from Maire's first year as a school, Dr. John William, also attended. He is godfather to third-grade teacher Ann Wilkins.

Students in the audience, many of them laughing and commenting during the slide show presentation, sang along, as did the staff. The alumni and their children blew out 75 candles and had cake afterward. Students were treated to doughnuts in class.

Michelle Agosta, a Maire parent and one of the celebration's organizers, gathered these factual tidbits about the school from the Grosse Pointe Historical Society and printed them in a program for Thursday's assembly:

  • In 1942, hot lunches cost 17 cents for a meal with plain milk or an extra penny for chocolate milk.
  • Student clubs in 1941 included model airplane building, folk dancing, piano, photography and reporting.
  • During World War II, Maire was active in war stamp purchasing, receiving a School of War flag in 1943 when more than 90 percent of students bought war stamps.
  • Maire was a registration and distribution center for sugar and gas ration books with teachers and parents volunteering and students bering excused from class to support the effort.
  • The schools 1950's PTA staged a "Boutique of Furs" fashion show to raise money for record players in the classroom. (Question from 2011 Maire student: What's a record player?)

Thursday's celebration was just one part a plan to remember the anniversary.

Later in the year, the contents of a time capsule that was opened and added to 25 years ago, will be revealed. Teachers and students will come up with new items to put in the capsule when it's brought out again in 25 years on the 100th anniversary.

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