Now in Their Sixties, Junior Highers Return
The three pastors who participated in the Sunday worship service on June 12 had all been members of the Junior High fellowship of First Presbyterian in the late 1950s when they were shepherded by Bill and Bea Gardner. Later in the day, the Revs. Dr. Cherry Marshall, John D. Dennis and Donna Kay Hitner and spouses joined George Wallace and his wife, Leslie Twyford Thomas, Bob Schrey, the Rev. Modi and Gloria Essoka, Lee Davidson Heisey and others for a dinner at the Lower Gwynedd home of Peter and Deborah Watson, the brother and sister-in-law of Sherry Marshall. These alums came from Baltimore; Corvallis, Oregon; Chicago; West Orange, New Jersey; Winter Park, Florida; Lancaster and Saylorsville, Pennsylvania.
The woman of the day, of course, was Bea Gardner who, along with the others, reminisced all afternoon about the years when the Junior High youth group was the shining star in First Church‘s crown of organizations. Bea reminded everyone that it was Sherry who approached the Gardners and asked them to sponsor the young people even though Bea and Bill had not had any experience. So they simply used the pattern that was working for the young adults in the church.
The Junior Highers met eve-ry Sunday at 7:00 pm. "We started absolutely on time, and we waited for no one", said Bea. "We had the complete and total support of the parents for everything we wanted to do." Their two socials a month in-cluded ice skating and bowling along with a game called "Jinks Up". (Ask Bea what that is).
During the 200th anniver-sary of the church, when most of the present group returned for the celebration, they decided to meet again in two years, and now they plan to meet every year. In giving the communion meditation during the worship service, Dr. Marshall said that First Church had given her the foundation for her faith. Because she so loved coming to church, she said she couldn‘t understand why children today don‘t have that love for a church—or a youth group.
From that long-ago group, though, at least four members became Presbyterian ministers. And in all of them is a bit of Bill and Bea Gardner.