GREETINGS ALUMNI 2023 FRIENDS!

One of the unique experiences of growing up in the Seventh-day Adventist church is how tightly interconnected the SDA community tends to be. This is especially true for those of us who have attended denominational schools. There have been many times in my life when I have met someone who attended Highland years or even decades before me and found that there is an immediate bond of fellowship based on our shared experiences. Truly we are blessed to be a part of this family.

As I write this letter, we have just wrapped up a wonderful Alumni Weekend at Highland Academy, celebrating honor classes from years ending in three and eight. It was good to see so many of you there. Some of my best friends from my time at Highland were in the class immediately ahead of mine, the class of ‘93. It was a pleasure to see so many of them back for their 30th anniversary honor year. For me, a special high point of the weekend was the music brought to us by our Sabbath speaker Jennifer (Halverson) Woody ’93, my friend and classmate Will Labrenz ’94, and my sister Christa Raines ’90.

For those of you who were unable to make it, please know that you were missed. We hope you will be able to join us next year as we honor classes from years ending in four and nine. Class of ’94, I’ll be looking for you!

Sincerely,

Aaron Raines

Aaron Raines ‘94 Alumni President

BY CAROLINE BRIDGES AND MAGGIE CARLSON

Every year since 1995, Highland Academy has held Acrofest on their campus as a way to bring schools and students together to share their love for God and gymnastics. It has been a way for students to increase their level of skills, and form new friendships. Acrofest was invented 28 years ago by Jim Ingersoll, Principal of Highland Academy from 1990-2003, to highlight the main sport of Adventist education, gymnastics.

Throughout the many years it has been tradition to ask Southern Adventist University Gym-Masters to lead out in different clinic groups to teach and master new skills. Highland invites every school in the KY-TN Conference from grades fifth to twelfth. At this year’s Acrofest there were teams from across the conference participating. Lexington Adventist Elementary school participated for the first time. A team outside of our conference, K-Squad, has been attending for multiple years. The head coach, Kimberly Bridges said, “Acrofest has always been one of my favorite events, and after a couple years without it, it was so nice to be back in the gym with all the other schools and teams. It is always awesome to watch the kids learn new skills and make new friends, but the best part is watching everyone glorify God through gymnastics! Cannot wait for next year!”

To begin this exciting event, Thursday evening, the participants enjoyed icebreaker games which allowed students to interact and meet one another. Then they are off to their first clinic. There are seven different stations that help with basics skills for the first-time beginner groups, another to help improve moves they may already be working on, and lastly to introduce a new set of skills to the advanced groups. The different stations are tumbling, elevators, tossing, pairs, three highs, handstands, and circus. On Friday, after another day of clinic rotations we participate in contests to showcase individual skills such as handstands, headstands, hand to hand, butterflies, and many more with the highlight of tossing and trying to “Pin the Beam.”

Pinning the Beam happened accidentally during Acrofest in 1998, when a tossing group threw so high, the flyer touched one of the ceiling beams, and so the competition began. In the event of “pinning the beam,” there are multiple tossing groups from different teams who toss a flyer as high as they can into the air. They try again and again until the flyer is high enough to grab on and hang from the beam in Highland Academy’s gym, or before time runs out. Sadly, this past year, on Saturday night during the show, no one managed to “pin the beam,” but the day before during practice, Haley Fulton, from Madison Academy, pinned the beam. This is always a huge event and hopefully more will “Pin the Beam” next year!

On Saturday night, the Acrofest participants performed along with Highland Elementary, and Madison Campus Elementary. Head Coach of Madison Academy, Raphan Ley said, “I’m glad I’ve gotten to be a part of it since the beginning and pray that it continues to bless future generations of gymnasts.” The Acrofest teams perform a routine that was planned during the clinics. Some groups were combined. “What I love about Acrofest is learning new skills, being able to interact with other people who enjoy the same sport as I do and cheering on friends and family in performances and competitions,” said Tessa Wade, eighth grade student at Highland Elementary. In 2021, the KY-TN conference canceled Acrofest due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For safety precautions, it was downsized to just Highland and Madison Academy in 2022. But thankfully, Acrofest was able to return to its original size this year with much excitement from the participants. Acrofest has been a way that Highland can connect with other schools, welcoming them onto our campus. This year was an exciting year! We created new memories and new friends and cannot wait to make more next year!