PLANNED GIVING | HONORING ANGELA PERKINS ’88
Spirit
GIVING IN THE
There’s a photo near the back of the 1988 Lantern yearbook, page 163, bottom of the page. In it is 18-year-old Angela Perkins, Class of 1988. She’s smiling widely, like she is in most photos. There’s a large bee drawn on the wall behind her and she’s holding two signs. One says: “Go Hutch!” The other reads: “Hutch Spirit!” The caption next to the photo reads: “Most School Spirited.” “She absolutely was the most devoted to school spirit,” said Angela’s classmate and friend Pam Padgett Shumake ’88, who remembers her fondly. “Angela brought energy to everything that she did.” Shumake works as Hutchison’s upper school counselor
caring, sympathetic, sociable, energetic, pleasant, goodnatured, warm, understanding. “That’s Angela, absolutely,” Shumake said. The Class of 1988, as well as friends from MUS who knew Angela, kept in touch with Angela’s parents, Liz and
and counseling director and is very much a keeper and
Dwight. “For years, her parents came to see who would
promoter of Hutchison’s school spirit. She remembered
receive the Goodwill Award,” Shumake said. “They stayed
that one of Angela’s favorite things to do was to take photos.
connected to the school.”
Mind you, this was back in 1988, when it wasn’t as easy as
When Dwight passed away, Hutchison and MUS students
pulling out a cell phone and snapping a photo. “Angela
helped with Dwight’s estate and became a conservator for
wasn’t trying to be a professional photographer,” Shumake
Liz. When Liz passed away, they finalized the estate. That
explained. “She loved taking
was when they found out that
pictures of friends at get-
Angela’s parents had left a gift
togethers, at events, at games.
to Hutchison in their will. “The
Half of her pictures would be the
amount of money could have
side of someone’s face, laughing
helped the Perkins in different
or whatever. She loved to try to
ways,” Shumake said, “but they
take embarrassing pictures with
made the choice to leave that
people. She was a character.”
money to Hutchison because
The result was a huge
they never broke that connec-
collection of photos in shoe
tion, that bond. I think a donation
boxes of all of Angela’s friends
was a way that they kept part of
and classmates over the high
Angela’s memory as a student
school years. “We’ve had
here alive in their minds.
opportunities to look at those photos
“The gift is gigantic in love.”
and laugh and be embarrassed by some of them,”
The money will be used to fund
Shumake said. It was almost as if school spirit had moved Angela to document that time for her class. Sadly, Angela passed away in 1994. Keeping a Connection with Hutchison The Class of 1988 decided to establish an award in Angela’s honor. The Angela Perkins Goodwill Award is awarded to the senior and member of the Twelve Year Club who best meets these characteristics: genuine, amiable, 50 | Hutchison
school spirit and culture initiatives. “School spirit is not something that is just for fun or for when we take a break,” Shumake explained. “It’s one of the most important ways to build your culture and keep it intact. It brings a lot of joy to the whole school, and people do better in school when they feel connected and love their school.” That’s certainly something Angela would cheer for.
