The Highland classes of 1975 and 2016 are funding two different memorial projects. The class of 1975, which current Mid-Prairie Superintendent Mark Schneider is a member of, has raised funds for a memorial to their recently deceased classmate, Tom Carson. Carson passed away last October at the age of 59, and his classmates decided to honor him by erecting a memorial bench on the Highland campus. Meanwhile, the class of 2016 is raising funds for their own memorial bench to honor the late father of their classmate Ian Mapp. Walter Mapp passed away last May at the age of 55, just days before Ian’s graduation.

Highland Superintendent Chris Armstrong says they are unsure exactly where the two benches will go, “There’s a few sites we’re looking at. One is possibly by the concession stand area, where we already have a wall that has some kind of recognition of people who donated and bought some bricks. We also have a little shelter area where the old concession stand used to be, so that’s a possibility. And then we already do have a memorial to a young man who passed away in service of our country, and that’s out by the football field. So that might be a place to go also, and maybe fix that area up a little more.” Armstrong says they have a building committee that is trying to find what will work best for the placement of the memorials. He anticipates the benches to be installed by late spring or early summer.