Spaulding alumnus launches website to save logo
FOSTER'S DAILY DEMOCRAT (Dover, NH)
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Amanda Dumond — Democrat Staff Writer
ROCHESTER — When a recent Spaulding High School graduate learned that his alma mater's Red Raider emblem was in jeopardy, he stepped into action.
Jeremy Bourgeois, 2005 Spaulding alumnus and now a freshman at the University of New Hampshire, says he launched the Save the Red Raider website Friday, which in four days received more than 750 hits. An online petition on the free website to save the logo also garnered 150 signatures.
After doing some investigation and visiting the Spaulding Alumni Association website, Bourgeois said there was a need for a better forum for people to express their concerns and support for the Red Raider. The alumni site has a poll asking people whether the Red Raider logo should stay or change, but it has proved inaccurate because visitors to the site are voting numerous times. As of Monday, 5,481 people had visited the site, but more than 25,000 had supposedly voted in favor of retaining the logo.
The debate has been ongoing over whether to eliminate the Red Raider logo because it is perceived by some to be offensive to American Indians. Peter Sanfacon of Framingham, Mass., a 1977 Spaulding alumnus, reignited the debate in the past month when he sent a letter to the superintendent's office asking the school district consider changing the logo.
"I wanted the community to be able to have its say," Bourgeois said of the website. "I respect (Sanfacon's) opinion, but he's no longer a member of this community. I feel very strongly in allowing the people of Rochester to ultimately decide this issue."
Bourgeois, who played baseball at Spaulding and grew up for the most part in Rochester, also added that while Sanfacon has had personal interactions with American Indians who find such logos offensive, the young alumnus also pointed to School Street School teacher Dot Callaghan's interactions with the Navajo Indians and their positive response to the Red Raider logo.
"If we are to seek the opinion of local Native Americans and tribes, we have to do it so they are all heard and not just the ones sharing our position on the issue," he said.
The website was one of many ways alumni and community members expressed their pride in the Red Raider logo this week. More than 60 people filled the middle school cafeteria at a public hearing Tuesday night on the issue and gave testament after testament to the solidarity they shared because of the Red Raider name and logo. Their passionate speeches convinced the majority of the Rochester School Board's Special Services Committee to leave the logo as it is.
While the website offered visitors the chance to post their opinion on the issue, Bourgeois also had planned to sell Save the Red Raider memorabilia if the debate continued longer than it did. As of Tuesday, he had printed up business cards and bumper stickers, but said he's abandoning that pursuit unless other alumni are interested. His dedication to saving the mascot also was fairly evident when he arrived at the hearing with his car decorated with the Red Raider logo and the Save the Red Raider slogan.
Bourgeois, who is enrolled in UNH's Thompson School of Applied Science community service and leadership program, said he was able to use his efforts to save the Red Raider in his classes. He plans to transfer to the political science bachelor's degree program.
The young advocate said his friends have asked him repeatedly why he cares so much about a logo. "I tell them this is a part of my history," he said.
To learn more about the website, visit www.savetheredraider.com.
