102 years of students, both young and old, coming together. 

102 years of bridging the generational gap, of tearing down brick by brick the wall that separates “then” from “now.” 

That is 102 years of planning, scheduling and meetings concerning the only Assembly in the school district. Principal David Sunich, alongside Alumni Association President Chris Kucklick and unofficial Secretary/Treasurer Brett Anderson, have played a part in the planning of this year’s assembly.  

“For 100 years, the assembly was traditionally on the last day of school before Winter Break, during the school day,” Sunich said. “And for most of that time, the whole student body would go to the gym and be a part of the assembly with the alumni.” 

However, for the 100th assembly, two years ago, the administration made the decision to move it to the evening rather than during the school day.  

“The student body and staff were not feeling like the kids were connecting with the Assembly,” Sunich said. “A lot of kids were just leaving school, and the kids who did go were distracted, not paying attention. It didn’t feel relevant to the students, so we decided to make it a specifically just assembly.”  

And for several years, that’s just how it was. Until this year, when the Alumni Association came alongside Sunich to make the decision to move it back to the school day.  

“Through a conversation with the Alumni Association, I agreed we would give it a try, to move it back during the school day this year. I met once with the alumni specifically to talk about scheduling and all that stuff. I scheduled a meeting with some representatives from the alumni and some representatives from our student body,” Sunich said.  

The team, including members of the cheer team, band, leadership and more, discussed several questions. 

“How do we refresh the assembly, to make it more engaging for students [and] help them feel more connected and involved in it,” Sunich said. “And still honor some of the traditions that have been a part of the Assembly? 

After all, for most alumni that attend, the assembly sparks fond remembrance and sentences beginning with the words “back in my day…” This is true for Brett Anderson, a member of Puyallup’s Alumni Association.  

“It gives a chance for alumni to come back to what, for most of us, was a really wholesome environment and a positive experience,” Anderson said. “The bigger challenge has been making it relevant to the students.” 

It’s that connection between the alumni and the students that , year after year, has proved to be difficult.  

“I wish people knew they’re part of something pretty special here,” Sunich said. “We just go to school, and we don’t feel that emotional connection to it. There’s a lot of history here.” 

Puyallup, having been around for 130 years, has only grown in historical value over time. 

“We’ve got some famous alumni, people who have gone on to do really, really cool things. There’s so much history here that we don’t talk about. We just come and go and don’t pause to think. I want people to know that when they graduate from here, they’re going to be joining 130 plus years of history.” 

Chris Kucklick, Alumni Association President, has been a part of ensuring the assembly achieves what they set out to achieve. 

The Associations focus this year is to “help people at the school, Sunich, everybody else so it they’re not having to carry the whole load,” Kucklick said.  

The Association’s mission statement builds on this focus.  

“We have a dual mission statement. One is certainly to raise funds for scholarships, but we have a second one, and it’s to continue weaving the fabric of the Puyallup High School in the community,” Anderson said. “We want people to we want to hold this thing together. We want to cross pollinate between years. We want people to have fond memories of the school and gather once or twice a year in honor the tradition that somebody had the foresight to lay down 102 years ago.” 

The idea of long-lasting impact has continued from simply a mission statement to the way the Association goes about helping to plan the Assembly.  

“I saw the Lip Dub that you guys did, and I thought it’d be super cool to figure out how to not necessarily recreate that, but something like that that the students would think of,” Kucklick said.  

The planning team even considered changing the name of the event to “Alumni-student Assembly.”  

“We hope that someday we can leverage this cross pollination of youth and alumni to where we can help you guys. When I was in school, I felt there was a real void in ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ From the time you’re knee high, it’s a fireman, a nurse, or a policeman,” Anderson said. “There was only four things or a doctor, if you didn’t realize how much it cost to become a doctor.”  

The future, for both the students and the possibly the assembly itself, is unsure. 

“There’s also the belief that if we don’t expose our current students to the assembly, they’re not going to know anything about it, and the assembly will die someday because there’s no connection to it.,” Sunich said.  

With the help of the Alumni Association, there is hope that this future will not come to pass.   

“Every school needs money, to help us build our funds [and] to help students here,” Anderson said. “The thought of losing this event is a terrible thought in our mind, just out of tradition, but also financially. It could be harmful to what we could provide in terms of scholarships in the future.” 

Beyond the student-assembly planning, there are also organizational concerns involved with the planning.  

“How do we manage it during a school day so we can keep kids safe? Hundreds of people come on campus. There’s some logistical challenges that go along with it,” Sunich said.  

The changes in time of day have also been a challenge to alumni. When the assembly has been in the evening, it’s been too dark for some to make the drive to the school. Earlier in the day, other alumni work and are unable to make it.  

“Another current that we have to fight is that so many people have matriculated into Puyallup from other areas, this thing is foreign to them. If you came from Spokane, or if you came from Missouri, you just don’t know what this is. We’d like to get people more educated on that and build those traditions. I’ve even had discussions with educators who are like, ‘it doesn’t mean anything to me. I didn’t grow up here,’” Anderson said.  

However, with the assistance of the Alumni Association, the assembly planners overcame many of these obstacles.  

“Every year we make adjustments. We’re trying to trying to balance being proud of our alumni and helping maintain this tradition that has been going on for 103 years now, which they’re really, really proud of. A lot of them have different views on what that should look like,” Sunich said.  

The Association is always on the lookout for needs within the school. From a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars, they aim to benefit programs across generations.  

“It started1992. I got on board somewhere around ‘98 or ’99, when they were still having the annual event at the Fairgrounds. It starts in 1892, when the city was formed. Puyallup had a 100-year celebration in 1992 and when that celebration was over with, there were some limited funds left over,” Anderson said. “I’m not sure who made those decisions, but somehow they made the decision that, well, it was so much fun having people gather and celebrate.” 

It was that decision that led to the birth of the Alumni Association. Those extra funds went to their efforts to improve and fund Puyallup High School’s programs and school grounds. The event now known as the Assembly is one of the many events partnered with the association. 

“This year is the one hundred and second year. So, as students, we went there. We watched it. It was cool to see which little old lady is going to be the oldest alumni that returns,” Anderson said.  

One of the many living traditions that connects the generations of students is known as the class roll call. 

“We do the class cheer for every class, and it starts with the most current class and goes backwards,” Anderson said. “A couple years ago, we actually watched a lady from the 1943 class. The school didn’t even know the cheer, and she cited it book and verse. It was amazing.” 

And although so many small traditions highlight parts of this event, the truest tradition is the Assembly itself.  

“The purpose is really to celebrate the history of the high school, particularly for people from the ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s. This is such a positive memory for them to have gone to high school here to reconnect with their classmates,” Sunich said. “There’s generations of families who’ve been a part of the Puyallup community, and so there’s just a lot of pride in the school. Having an opportunity to come together and celebrate that is really what’s most important.”