Alumni from Illinois Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Children’s School hold annual reunion

NORMAL (25News Now) - The kids who grew up and attended classes at the former Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s School in Normal had their reunion Saturday.

The school was initially built for kids whose parents passed away during the Civil War and opened its enrollment to any children of Veterans.

Different renditions of the school were open for about 100 years before it officially closed in 1979.

Now once a year the teachers, employees, and students who attended and lived on the campus gather to reminisce on their time there like Denise Higgs who says, ”the shenanigans or the trouble the kids got to out here with each other was very similar in the 1970′s as to what it was in the 1940′s. It’s kind of like a camaraderie.”

The group toured some of their former villages where they slept.

The school and the 8-acre campus are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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