Doug Brown knew Nathan Hale High School was soon going to celebrate its 40th birthday. So when he took a left turn onto "Wolverine Way" in Bellevue to watch his son and the rest of the Nathan Hale Raiders lacrosse team battle the Bellevue Wolverines, he wondered, "Why can't there be a road named after Nathan Hale's mascot?"
The name choice was easy: "Raider Road."
All he had to do was make the right phone calls. For the following couple weeks, Brown, a 1974 Hale graduate, pitched his idea to former principal Eric Benson and Steve Reynolds, the president of Nathan Hale High School Foundation, an organization formed to help build community and raise funds for the school.
Then he contacted Michael Shea at the Seattle Department of Transportation, who processed the paperwork and made the project happen. Shea's son also attends Nathan Hale.
So just in time for the school's anniversary celebration on this Saturday, Sept. 20, a temporary "Raider Road" street sign will be installed near the school at the intersection of Northeast 110th Street and 34th Avenue Northeast from Thursday, Sept. 18, through Tuesday, Sept. 23.
To Shea's recollection, the only other time such a sign has been installed was when the TV show "Frasier," which is set in Seattle, celebrated an anniversary.
Brown, who is now a city employee, said he hopes the sign will help "infuse a little bit of spirit" back into the school in time for the festivities.
"Our school has a chronic lack of spirit," said Brown's son, Collin, a sophomore at Nathan Hale.
Nathan Hale, the youngest high school in Seattle, was built to accommodate growth in the city, Joan Northfield said. Northfield taught Home and Family Life from when the school opened until three years ago.
Named after the teacher and Revolutionary War hero, the school was built on a soggy, old golf course, despite protest from neighbors who wanted it on a hill instead, former Seattle School Boardmember Ellen Roe said.
The school housed sophomores, juniors and seniors, with its first class graduating in 1965. The students picked its mascot and the school colors: red, white and blue.
Although it has accommodated up to 2,800 students, Northfield said, it now has just less than 1,000, in an attempt to keep it smaller and more personal.
And it's the school of choice for many young Seattleites and their parents due to its many vocational programs and high academic standards.
Roe, a former PTA president and mother of six Nathan Hale alumni, said those vocational programs - such as the radio station and horticulture program - are just part of why Nathan Hale is such a great school.
Eric Benson, the school's principal until this year, is another part.
He "totally changed the school," Roe said.
He, along with staff, began putting students into smaller groups, or academies, in which they would take certain classes together. This made a large school seem a lot smaller, Northfield said.
After that, test scores soared, Roe said.
Nathan Hale is currently awaiting the completion of a performing arts center. The building was in the school's original plan, Northfield said, but it was never built due to lack of funding. The design will be on display during the Sept. 20 celebration.
The all-class birthday party is only one of four events to celebrate the school's anniversary. There was also a car show in August, and there will be a golf tournament on Monday, Sept. 22, as well as a wine tasting and beer fest on Nov. 7 to celebrate Benson's tenure as principal of Nathan Hale.
The Sept. 20 event will include a staff reception, birthday cake, lunch, class reunions, self-guided tours and an afternoon football game that will include a halftime tribute to former and current athletes.
Reynolds said the event isn't a fundraiser, but a gathering of students and staff past and present.
But most importantly, he said, it's to recognize the people who have often gone unrecognized: "It's to thank the teachers."
And he hopes the celebration and the temporary addition of "Raider Road" will not only raise school spirit, but make the school more visible in the community. After all, "schools can't survive without community support," he said.
For more information about the Nathan Hale High School Foundation or any of the anniversary celebrations, contact Reynolds at 784-0625.
