EVERYONE IS INVITED to a SURPRISE EVENT at which our longtime classmate Ron Petty will give his final sermon as Pastor of Security Baptist Temple (SBT) the past 34 years since 1988.
The surprise event will be on Sunday, January 29, 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., at SBT located at 208 Cunningham Drive located a few blocks from North Security Elementary School where many of us went to grade school with Ron in the 1950s. If you arrive at SBT and see a Salvation Army (SA) sign outside the church, don’t become confused and think you’re at the wrong place. SBT sold the building to SA five years ago, but SA has been gracious to allow SBT to continue to use the venue for SBT events.
In his role as a longtime pastor, Ron always has made himself available to many people (not just SBT parishioners) as a confidant and source of support as part of his ministry to help others in need. People who have had the fortune of hearing and seeing him speak from the pulpit could not help but notice how articulate and astute he is as a public speaker. Long before he became a pastor, Ron’s superb public-speaking skills were employed many times during school assemblies when he was our Student Council President at WHS in the mid-1960s.
SBT was started in the late 1950s, and Ron’s parents helped with the actual building of the church back then when Ron was still a child. The church has been led by seven pastors (including Ron) since it was founded. Because SBT has been an integral part of Ron’s life for 63+ years from the late 1950s through the present, his retirement will not only be a new chapter — it will be a major transition for him.
If you are unable to attend the surprise event in person and would like to express best wishes to Ron on his retirement, you may send messages to him at this WHS email box and hard copies of the messages will be mailed to Ron via postal mail. He does not check email and is not on Facebook, so he cannot be contacted through those online channels. If you want to contact him through the old-fashioned method of a greeting card, you may send it via postal mail to:
Ron Petty
c/o McAlexander
801 Hallam Ave.
Colorado Springs CO 80911
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OUR classmate MEG HULSEY MAILO is still recovering from two surgeries and her lengthy hospitalization as a result of extensive burns on her back and thigh stemming from a fire on November 3 at her home in western Colorado. As noted in this newsletter one month ago on December 22, Meg was scheduled for an assessment meeting with her medical team on December 28 to determine whether or not she would be released to return home. At that assessment meeting, the medical team decided to release Meg. In my brief phone chat with her on New Year’s Day, she confirmed that she was indeed home. Her claim of being home was vastly different from her own Facebook post the same day, at which time she stated she was not yet home due to being in isolation in Denver after contracting RSV while at the rehab center in Denver. Given the strong medications that Meg has been taking for pain ever since her lengthy stay at the hospital and rehab center, the discrepancy in her location certainly is understandable.
In a Facebook post by Meg’s daughter Toni two weeks ago on January 8, Meg’s primary doctor in western Colorado determined that Meg was not ready to be home and she was once again hospitalized in the area where she lives in western Colorado. The post noted that Meg broke her phone (which was bought for her with funds from the online fundraiser), so Toni planned to give her mother a used digital tablet that Toni once had. There has been no further communication about Meg since that post on January 8.
Many thanks to our classmate and class-website manager Paul Snell for alerting me to the aforementioned posts on Facebook. I never have been a Facebook member, so I rely on Paul and other Facebook members to inform me of situations conveyed through that source.
The online fundraiser for Meg increased by $300 to a $3,100 total after this newsletter was distributed a month ago on December 22. In addition to the WHS folks who were listed as donors at the time of the December 22 newsletter, there were three new donors (Mike Adragna, Marcia Hagans Allin, Linda Nolin Weber) and supplemental contributions from three previous donors (Mary Ashley Fuchsman, Terry Chambers, Mick Parnell) — all of whom accounted for the aforementioned $300 increase in donations.
As noted in this newsletter a month ago on December 22, Meg has resigned herself to the reality that the recovery process will be what she describes as “slow and a long time.” Please join me in continuing to keep Meg in thoughts and prayers during this major health challenge for her. Please be sure to check our class website for updates about Meg.
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OUR classmate RHONDA RICHARDS SHAMBURGER is at her relative’s home while recovering from a hospitalization for a challenging medical condition (not disclosed, per Rhonda’s request). If you would like to express best wishes to Rhonda during this period of her recovery, she can be contacted through online channels via Facebook or messages to her at this WHS email box. Although Rhonda originally did not want her hospitalization and recovery to be revealed to our readers, she recently conveyed her permission via our classmate Levi Bruce. Please join me in keeping Rhonda in thoughts and prayers during this health challenge for her. Please be sure to check our class website for updates about Rhonda.
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TO VISIT OUR CLASS WEBSITE that was assembled and has been maintained
since April 2009 by our Class Committee member and Webmaster, Paul Snell,
please go to:
www.1966whs.com
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That’s all, folks. [Those are the same three words that the famous 1950s cartoon character Porky Pig always used upon ending each episode.]
This update was prepared by me.
Respectfully submitted,
Donnie Martínez (January 22, 2023)
Security — grade school thru graduation 1966
Known in Security by stepdad’s surname Collier
Martínez is my birth certificate and legal surname
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