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This year the NSSD Alumni Foundation decided to establish the NS Hall of Fame. In doing this they hope to not only recognize great NS alumni and employees, but to also raise money for NSSD.
To start out what the foundation hopes to be a great tradition, they picked three celebrated individuals, Governor Spencer Cox, George Lee, and Roy Ellefsen, PhD. Their respective nomination reasons vary. Cox is an alumnus, Lee was a football coach, and Ellefsen a former teacher at NS.
“It was a nice mix,” Superintendent Nan Ault said. “I thought that was appropriate. Rather than just focusing on one person, we could actually spread the love and really honor more than one.”
The foundation was able to perform this successfully, especially at the dinner. Eighty-seven people attended the event, each paying for a ticket. Not only that, but participants received speeches from all of the inductees and the people who nominated them. Among these were Ben Cox for Ellefsen, Rhett Bird for Lee, and Jeremy Madsen for Cox. Aside from the ceremony and speeches, the foundation is also planning a plaque to be displayed at the high school.
This entire project, spearheaded by Abby Ivory, emerged from her previous school district out of state.
“The idea came from a desire to unite the communities in North Sanpete in support of the school district,” Ivory said. “My old high school in South Carolina has a Hall of Fame and I thought it was a great way to recognize alumni and their successes. We expanded our criteria to not only alumni but anyone who contributed to the success of North Sanpete.”
All of the men were chosen appropriately, nominated by different alumni and school personnel. They hope in years to come that all great employees or alumni will be recognized.
“We looked at people who were nominated multiple times,” Ault said, “and we just chose three they thought would be a good place to start. Really, there were so many you could’ve started with. We hope to get to all of them.”
But now, they’ve decided to focus on these three, Cox, Lee, and Ellefsen. Ellefsen is praised and nominated by teacher/counselor Ben Cox.
“Roy Ellefsen was one of the greatest teachers in the history of North Sanpete High School,” Ben Cox said. “He taught college French, Humanities, and English, and he led the choir to the highest marks at state for many years. He was an institution here, and his legacy continues as many teachers currently at NS learned from him. Roy inspired us with his wit, his humor, and his brilliance. He loved his subjects almost as much as he loved his students, which is why we loved him in return. He is the reason I and many others became teachers.”
Rhett Bird gave reasons for Lee’s nomination.
“George was nominated for the time, commitment and dedication that he gave to little league sports in our community,” Bird said. “For nearly 30 years he started and ran our league little football program. Because of the commitment he put into it, hundreds of kids have had the opportunity to excel and take their talents to colleges and even to the national football league. Our school has benefited from those players moving on and giving back in such ways as a new weight room and sports training room so that hundreds more can continue to excel in sports here at North Sanpete High School.”
And finally, Ivory supports Spencer’s nomination.
“Spencer is deserving because of the strides he has made in leadership and government. He is a leader that isn’t afraid to stand up for his beliefs and the public good. Plus he is gonna be President one day,” Ivory said.
Originally, the foundation planned on only giving one individual this award.
“We were actually going to start with one,” Ault said, “and we ended up saying there’s no reason for us, if we’re going to have a dinner, we might as well have three people.”
For this reason, Ault thinks that the ceremony went better then it might have with only one person.
“I really thought it would be only one person,” Ault said, “and it’s hard to rally everyone around a dinner and try to make that a bigger event for the community. So, It was great that we opened it up.”
