HENDERSONVILLE - Rugby Middle School staff and students invite the community to celebrate Rugby’s 50th Anniversary. On Saturday, May 6, the public is welcome to attend drop-in style festivities to commemorate the past 50 years of the school's history from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, rain or shine.

The Rugby Celebration Squad, a group of students and teachers, have been working since January to prepare 50 years of history for public enjoyment. The students will give brief presentations on the history of the Rugby community, rotating every 30 minutes, outside of the one-room schoolhouse replica. The replica will also be open for visitors to self-tour. Heritage crafters from the community will also be on site showcasing their crafts. 

For the duration of the event, yearbooks, memorabilia, and an oral history project: Voices of Rugby: Memories From Those Who Walked the Halls Over the Decades, will be available in the media center.  These oral history interviews include former and current staff and students’ accounts of their time at Rugby Junior High and Rugby Middle School.

Rugby alumni are invited to attend mini-reunions throughout the day in the gymnasium. The schedule for these reunions will be: 

• 10:30 to 11:00 AM- Former Rugby Teachers
• 11:00 to 11:30 AM- Alumni 1973 to 1979 
• 11:30 AM to 12:00 PM- Alumni 1980 to 1989
• 12:00 - 12:30 PM- Alumni 1990 to 1999
• 12:30 to 1:00 PM- Alumni 2000 to 2009
• 1:00 to 1:30 PM- Alumni 2010 to 2022

Student leaders will guide hikes on the school’s wooded trails starting at 11:00 AM. Hikes will depart from behind the replica schoolhouse and leave every hour. These leaders will also manage carnival style games, a bounce house, and face painting for younger visitors’ amusement.

A variety of food trucks will be on site throughout the event. Birthday cake will be available in the cafeteria starting at 11:00 AM. Live musical and dramatic performances from Rugby Middle and West Henderson High students will take place every 30 minutes starting at 10:30 AM.  

Rugby Middle School opened as Rugby Junior High School in 1973 after Vernon and Leander Johnson, of the Historic Johnson Farm, donated 40 acres of land to Henderson County Public Schools. The school became a middle school in 1993 and currently serves 809 students.

Source: Henderson County Public Schools