Fifteen years ago the late Wayne E. Bartels started a Euchre Party to thank seniors for their support of Portage schools.
The atmosphere in the school Friday suggested his reasons — and many others — were at play.
“I really like just hanging around and getting to see all the people of Portage,” said seventh-grader Genna Garrigan, taking a break from wheeling a cart loaded with sodas and bags of popcorn to card players in the school’s gymnasium. “In school you don’t get to see the older citizens.”
The longstanding event is one Bartels’ wife, Bev, knows has many sources of enjoyment. For one, it’s a place for everybody “to get together,” she said, noting how it began primarily as a “social event” in 2001. But maybe it’s always been one with a purpose unique to its participants.
For Bartels, seeing the teachers is a way to “reconnect” with familiar faces.
People are also reading…
“The older people get out, and now I’m one of them,” she said with a laugh. For the students, she thought, the value might be bit more than that.
“I think they identify, like, these are my grandparents.”
Genna, asked to name her favorite part of the Euchre Party, suggested Bartels had the right idea.
“I love listening to all of their stories. They love telling stories.”
Principal Bob Meicher succeeded Wayne Bartels as principal in 2007, keeping the Euchre Party going and trying to strengthen it by making sure students always served the snacks, always offered any help seniors might need and always helped them back to their seats.
“It amazes me today to see kids still come up to me and talk about this,” Meicher said of the Euchre Party. “So they’re soaking it up.
“You can see where kids who had grandparents, they feel that connection to them, and they want to spend a special moment with them when they’re at their school.”
And there’s the card game itself, too.
“I’m high (score) — but that won’t last though, believe me,” said Bartels, clutching her score card.
Traditional card games like euchre, Meicher said, seem to be falling “by the wayside.” Maybe that’s because of modern technology, but for those who grew up in “card-playing houses” like Meicher did, you’ll know “it’s a good way to get into conversation.”
“Everybody plays for themselves, but they’re playing in partners now. Winners get up and move to the next table and the losers stay put,” Meicher explained, noting players would turn in their score cards at the end to qualify for minor cash prizes for finishing in the top three or for high hands.
“There’s more pride on the line than there is prize money.”
Teacher Linda Brzezinski agreed players assembled Friday — there were about 30 tables of four players — didn’t think too much about the prize money. The event is free, though donations collected that day went to Wayne Bartels scholarships.
What might surprise students new to the party, Brzezinski said, were the laughs.
“They see these people have great senses of humor,” she said of students meeting seniors. “A lot of our students don’t have families or grandparents, and they can come here. That’s a big help.”
Students today, especially middle school students, tend to get “a bad rap,” Meicher said. Their social and emotional struggles unique to the age group are “often forgotten” unless you spend enough time with them.
“Every one of us went through that awkward stage of being a middle-schooler,” Meicher said. “So I think it’s important for all of us to understand they are who they are because their bodies are doing all these strange things.
“They act a certain way, but they always grow out of it. They always become young adults.”