Your Bull Dog Alumni Association had an Outstanding year in 2025 – with much progress and many highlights – but you can help us do even better in 2026!

Accomplishments:

We reached a major milestone in 2025 – in the past 10 years we have provided over $250,000 in aid to Columbus North students and teachers!   In 2025 alone we will give over $50,000 in scholarships, awards, and grants:

  • $25,000 in scholarships to 7 Outstanding Bull Dog Seniors
  • Over $16,000 in 18 grants to teachers, departments, or student organizations
  • Nearly $13,000 in awards and appreciation gifts to Teachers and support staff as part of our Teacher Appreciation Program.

Over 200 Alumni, Teachers, Community Organizations, and Friends stepped up in 2024 to provide donations or sponsorships. The number of donor/sponsors and the total dollar amount of donations and sponsorships grew dramatically over 2023 and set new records for Bull Dog generosity.

Your Alumni Association used these financial resources to continue increasing the number and value of programs benefiting Bull Dog students and teachers.

The winners of this year’s scramble tournament were 4 members of the Bull Dog golf team: Ryder Allman, Joseph Perry, Parker Brown, and Carter Battin. They set a new scoring record at 18 under par.

Golf Outing: In May of 2025, we invited alumni and friends to participate in our 2nd annual Par 3 Golf Outing. We welcomed over 70 golfers of all ages and skill levels to the Columbus Par 3 course for a day of fun, food, and friends. We expect this event to grow in popularity in the years to come.

Barkes Weaver & Glick Funeral Homes, Hoosier Air Transport, Cornerstone Development, Prime Financial Services, Honeymoon Hauling, Case Construction, Hendershot Farm Bureau Insurance, The Tony London Company, and Peter King Law sponsored the event and a dozen other sponsors provided financial support or merchandise.

Mark your calendar for the 3rd Annual Outing – May 29th, 2026 !

Scholarships: $25,000 in scholarships to 7 deserving 2024 CNHS graduates set a new record. When our scholarship selection committee had a difficult time choosing between two exceptionally qualified applicants for the Webb Salmon Excellence in English Scholarship, a very generous anonymous donor stepped in to fund two $10,000 awards.

Scholarship winners for 2025 were:

  • Regina Holguin won the Samuel P. Simmermaker Journalism & Communications Scholarship. Regina is going to University of Indianapolis to study Sports Communications with the goal of working in sports radio or television broadcasting.
  • Ben Ferguson won the John Carmichael “True Blue” award for basketball. Ben is attending Taylor University where he is studying Business and hopes to have a career in financial planning.
  • Carter Battin won the John Carmichael “True Blue” award for golf. Carter is attending St. Mary-of-the-Woods college, studying Business. He hopes to land a career in Finance or the golf industry.
  • Huntington Pike was awarded the Michael P. Garber Memorial Scholarship. Huntington will attend Johnson & Wales Culinary school to study Pastry and Baking Arts with the goal of working abroad as a pastry chef.
  • Reese Euler won the John W. Hinds Tradition of Excellence award. Reese is attending the University of Kentucky where she will study Marketing and participate on the UK Cheer team.  Long term she would like to work in Marketing for a clothing or cosmetics company.
  • Adrian Perez Gonzalez was awarded a $10,000 Webb Salmon Excellence in English Scholarship. Adrian is attending Purdue University to study pharmaceutical science with the long term goal of becoming a pharmaceutical scientist.
  • RuthAnne Gilroy was also awarded a $10,000 Webb Salmon Excellence in English Scholarship. RuthAnne is attending Boyce College to study Elementary Education.  She wants to work as an elementary school teacher in a public school and perhaps become an elementary school occupational therapist after that.

Student and Faculty Support Grants: In 2025, we approved 18 grants averaging $900 each to teachers or student organizations for projects that enriched the Bull Dog learning experience. These grants covered a wide range of academic and extracurricular activities: from assisting Japanese language students attend a Taiko drumming performance to paying for substitute teachers so that 2 teachers can attend a continuing education conference; and from subsidizing choral students’ attendance at Show Choir summer camp to sponsoring a Transition Event for special needs students.

Teacher Appreciation Program: Our signature program continued to grow and improve in 2025:

  • Congratulations to our 2025 Outstanding Teachers of the Year:
    • Outstanding Teacher of the Year – Susan Lax – Math teacher at CNHS for over 30 years. Susan graduated from St. Joseph’s College with an undergraduate degree in Secondary Math Education and later earned her Master’s degree in Secondary Administration from Indiana State. Susan and her husband, Tim, have four children who are all CNHS alumni.
    • Emerging Teacher of the Year – Alrielle Viewegh – Ali is in her 3rd year as a freshman English teacher at North. She also coaches the English Academic team, sponsors soccer club, co-sponsors Key club and is the assistant tennis coach for that other high school in town…
  • Our Teacher Appreciation Luncheon in May drew nearly 200 teachers, teacher’s assistants, administrators, and support staff. Attendees were served a tasty lunch and had a chance to win merchandise or a $50 Amazon gift card in a drawing.
  • Our August Welcome-Back program for teachers and support staff gave over 150 educators an opportunity to choose $50-worth of Bull Dog apparel or merchandise from a preliminary version of our on-line store (Sponsored and operated by the Tony London Company).
  • Teachers new to Columbus North received additional gift certificates and coupons to welcome them to the community.
  • Corporate and Alumni Sponsors funded nearly all of our 2025 Teacher Appreciation Program.
    • Outstanding Teacher Sponsors:
      • Outstanding Teacher Sponsors: John & Amber Elwood
      • Emerging Teacher Sponsors: Brett & Becky Merritt
    • Full Sponsors: John & Amber Elwood, Brian & Erin Russell, Mickey & Jenny Kim, Cummins Inc., Centra Credit Union, Columbus Wealth/Jacob Martin, Southern IN Orthopedics, Coca Cola of Columbus Foundation, and The Tony London Company.
    • Supporting Sponsors: Roberts Realty, Northside Pediatrics, Johnson Ventures, Bartholomew County REMC, Fast Signs/Prestige Printing, & Zeller Insurance, LLC.

Thank You, Sponsors!

Bull Dog Alumni Hall of Fame: We welcomed a new member to our Hall of Fame in 2025. The induction ceremony, held on October 3rd, was well attended and included an entertaining and inspiring performance by the 25th Street Singers and delicious hors d’oeuvres prepared by CNHS Food Services staff. The event was sponsored by Peter King Law.

Our 2025 Outstanding and Emerging Teachers of the Year (Susan Lax and Ali Viewegh) were recognized and spoke briefly about what the awards meant to them. But, as always, the star of the ceremony was the new, distinguished inductee:

Doug Robinson – Class of 1987 – Dr. Robinson, as a researcher and educator at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has made scientific, medical and educational contributions which have had a positive impact on the lives of the people in his community and throughout the world.

As a researcher, his Lab investigates Cell Biology to discover fundamental concepts that can be applied to human diseases, including cancer and lung disease, with the goal of developing future therapeutics.  As an educator, he has received numerous national awards for Excellence in Education – and founded the Johns Hopkins Initiative for Careers in Science and Medicine, assisting young scholars from socioeconomically under-resourced backgrounds.

This year Doug helped us test a new program meant to enrich the educational experience of CNHS students and allow Hall of Famers to share their wisdom and experience with the next generation of Bull Dogs.  We arranged for Doug to join a small group of science students for a Q&A on careers in Medicine or Medical Research.  Then he gave a presentation to a larger group of students and faculty in our auditorium.

All Bull Dog Alumni and friends are welcome to attend Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.

Looking ahead: Can you help us do even more in 2026?

We see great opportunities to increase and improve our programs to benefit students, teachers, and alumni in future years – but are limited by our human and financial resources.  Here are some ways that you might be able to help us do more and better:

Volunteer: We need more dedicated people to help us – especially with Communications and Event/Project Planning.  We know we can do a better job communicating through our e-newsletters, website, and social media.  Some specific projects might be:

  • Serve as webmaster – We need someone who is up-to-date on school and alumni activities and can regularly update and maintain the website’s content while ensuring the site remains organized, engaging, and easy-to-navigate.
  • Investigate and implement participation on social media platforms – We need to look at how we might expand our social media presence beyond our current Facebook page.
  • Provide e-newsletter and/or social media content – This can be a one-time story or regular articles that can be edited and reposted on our website, in our e-newsletter, or on social media (or all of the above). We are interested in current school or alumni events, news about recent and not-so-recent alumni (or teachers/administrators/coaches), and stories and recollections about times gone by at CHS/CNHS.  Content can be any length (subject to editing) and should be sent to us in Word or PDF format.
  • Help clean up and update our alumni contact information – We have several sources of contact information which are not all in synch. We also need a long term strategy for gathering and maintaining our alumni contact database.
  • Help plan and implement special events and projects – We currently are planning events to honor the incredible State Championship run of CHS/CNHS Men’s Gymnastics teams of the late 1960’s through the early 1980’s – and the great success of the 1975 Men’s State Basketball team. But there are many other special teams and events in Bull Dog History that could and should be celebrated.  Additionally, we would like to better engage young alumni with communications, social events, or services.  We need ideas and planners.

If you are interested in volunteering, please let us know using this link: Contact Us – Columbus North Alumni.

Donate or Sponsor:

Thank You in advance for your Support!