LPHS Community Thanks Stew

We want to thank everyone who came out to honor Stew on Saturday!!! He was “simply blown away” by the response! He told us that the event far exceeded his expectations! It was our goal to make him FULLY understand and grasp the vast impact that he has had on so many of us through the years. We know we did that by all of you showing up to tell him just that. We also know that there were many, many of you who were not able to attend, but have just as much love and respect for Stew. Thank you also for your comments and support. We will make sure that all of your comments get to Stew as well. We will be printing them out and giving them to Stew, so anyone who would like to say anything to Stew, simply reply to this Facebook comment, and we will get yours to him!
In attendance we had students, athletes, friends and teachers from the early 1970’s on up. Stew touched, and continues to touch, decades of people. His family was also in attendance, so they were shown first-hand the real impact that Stew has made on the community as a whole, and on so many individuals.
For those wishing to share photos or videos from the event, please post them on the page entitled, “LPHS Community Thanks Stew”. We ask that many of your share…for Stew…for those who were there…and for those who were unable to attend in person.
Again, we want to THANK everyone for making this such a wonderful event celebrating Stew!!!

OK everyone, the “LPHS Community Thanks Stew” event is almost here!!!
It is set for Saturday, August 24th, 2024, at 11:00 am at Dirty Woman Creek Park (Pavilion)!
PLEASE READ these last-minute details:
Headcount: We’re trying to get a headcount of attendees. This is primarily to make sure we have the correct amount of food and chairs. Through previous Facebook posts we’ve counted those who’ve said that they intend to come. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WILL BE ATTENDING, BUT HAVE NOT PREVIOUSLY LET US KNOW, could you please inform us that you’ll be coming by simply saying so in a reply comment on this Facebook post? Please include the total number of people in your party and what year you graduated from Lewis-Palmer. Thanks guys!

Parking: We’re anticipating more cars than will be able to park at the pavilion lot. Any overflow will need to park in the lot just west of Limbach Park. The parking lot is between the railroad tracks and Mitchell Ave at the corner of Mitchell and 2nd St. Access is off Mitchell Ave. This lot is a half mile from Dirty Woman Creek Park, so the recommendation is to carpool from that lot (unless you want to walk the half mile). Please DO NOT park in the lot by the baseball field just south of the Pavilion at Dirty Woman Creek Park. There will be baseball games going on at the same time as our event, and the city has asked us to leave these parking spots available for those attending the baseball games.

Food: Food and drinks will be provided. We will have sandwiches available, along with fruit/vegetable/relish trays, and a selection of chips and drinks. Oh yea…and CAKE & COOKIES! We will have a large glass jar for people to leave any cash donations, should they choose to help cover food and event costs.

Other than that, please bring your ‘Stew Stories’! For those of you unable to attend but you still have Stew stories or messages for Stew, and you want them passed along to him, please reply with your comments to THIS post. We will make sure that Stew receives your message! For those of you attending who have not previously sent us comments, please either make your comments here; or, optimally, you can write your comments into the photo/comments book we will be giving to Stew.

For any additional questions, please either simply reply to this post, or send a Private Message. We will be checking this regularly between now and the event.

We look forward to seeing you all and making this a memorable event for Stew!!!

Here’s a reminder to all of you that Rich “Stew” Stewart’s celebration event (a.k.a. LPHS Community Thanks Stew) is scheduled for Saturday August 24th at 11:00am at Dirty Woman Creek Park (Pavilion) in Monument! As we get closer, we need everyone’s help on a couple of issues:
1-We need to get a rough headcount on how many people plan to attend. We are still working out the specifics as far as food and drinks, but first things first, we need to have a good guess on how many people will be there. All that to say, PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS FACEBOOK POST IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND (and how many people). Remember also that Stew’s celebration will be in conjunction with part of the Class of 1984’s 40th Reunion!
2-We are putting together a photo/comments book to give to Stew at the event. Whether or not you are able to attend in-person, we are looking for YOUR comments about Stew…whether it’s him throwing erasers at you…or him putting his arm around you! We simply want “STEW STORIES”! Just comment on this Facebook post with any stories or comments and we will try to get them printed in the book (let us know what year you graduated). Also, for those attending, if you think of a story later, there will be ample room in the photo book to hand write any stories/comments. Whether printed or handwritten, we think that this personal touch will be very much appreciated by Stew. Also, if anyone has photos that simply ‘have to be in the book’, just post them in your Facebook comments (please let us know roughly what year the photo is from).
If anyone has any questions, please post them on here and we will get back to you.
Look forward to seeing you there!

As a follow up…

Not only has Stew been dealing with the pain in his back, and elsewhere in his body related to his back issues, he is understandably dejected and depressed due to the length of time and severity of his pain. Someone unnamed…(unnamed only because she didn’t give me permission to use her name) had a great idea. Why don’t we have EVERYONE send him well wishes via cards and letters! I love the idea!!!

PERSONALLY, I HOPE WE SIMPLY OVERWHELM HIM WITH AN OVERFLOW OF CARING, SYMPATHY, AND ENCOURAGEMENT!

After speaking with his wife, Linda, I was told it would be Ok to list their address on Facebook in order to mail him cards and letters.
Their address is:

Rich Stewart
2910 Mt. Herman Rd.
Monument, CO 80132

Please take a moment of your time to send a card or letter to Stew. I know it will be greatly appreciated.

(P.S. The get-together next year is still unknown to Stew, so please refrain from mentioning it. If you must, simply let him know that you heard about his back issues and wanted to offer him some encouragement.)

Thanks to EVERYONE in advance!

AUGUST 24TH 11:00AM-??? AT DIRTY WOMAN CREEK PARK (PAVILION) IN MONUMENT, CO

The event to celebrate Stew is back on!!!

As you all remember, we had originally planned to have this event last summer, but due to some severe back problems that Stew was enduring, we had to postpone the event to this summer. Well...this summer is here! The event is now set for:

AUGUST 24th, 2024 11:00am-??? at Dirty Woman Creek Park (Pavilion) in Monument, CO

As a reminder, the purpose of this Facebook post is to let people know that we are planning a reunion-like celebration for Rich “Stew” Stewart. “Stew” started teaching/coaching at Lewis-Palmer High School in 1973. He’s had, and continues to have, a positive impact on so many of us over the years. He has impacted students, athletes, fellow staff members and many others. Since 2024 marks 51 years since he started at LPHS, we are planning a celebration (no longer a surprise) for the summer of 2024 to thank him for the positive influence he’s had on us. (In last year's post, we asked that everyone keep it a secret. This year's event is NOT a secret to Stew. We have discussed it with him).
This is not meant to be a gathering of just his top students, star athletes, or friends of his, for that matter. This is meant to be a reunion of anyone who feels that he made a positive impact on their lives. We continually hear stories of things he said and did to help others. Now’s the chance to bring those stories together!
The first step in putting this event together is to get the word out. A lot of people have passed through the halls of LPHS in 51 years! Please message this out to your contacts. Some of you have been involved in coordinating your own class reunions; some simply have a lot of contacts through Facebook and other means. We would welcome any contacts anyone might have. If you could provide these via Facebook Messenger, that would be awesome. Or simply spread the word yourselves.
As for the event itself, as noted, it will be held at Dirty Woman Park. What is cool is that the weekend of August 24th, is also the weekend that the LPHS CLASS OF 1984 WILL BE CELEBRATING THEIR 40TH RENUNION! We invite anyone attending their reunion to make a point to stop by Stew's get-together and say 'hi'. We have discussed this with Molly Mayfield, the coordinator for the Class of 1984 reunion.
We look forward to seeing you there!!

A couple weeks ago we had asked those within the ‘LPHS Community’ to send cards and notes to Stew to show him ‘caring, sympathy, and encouragement’ as he deals with some difficult times regarding his health. We mentioned that we were hoping to ‘overwhelm’ him. Good news…it is working! He texted me the other day to say that it is “really cool to get the cards and realize again how I affected their lives.”

For those of you who have already sent him a card/note, we Thank You! For those who intend to but just haven’t yet, we strongly encourage you to do so. Reminder: this is for anyone who was positively influenced by Stew, including past athletes, students, co-workers, friends, acquaintances etc. Again, he’s been dealing with both the physical and mental aspects of multiple back surgeries, and your cards are definitely helping. Please keep it up!

For those who missed it, his address is:

Rich Stewart
2910 Mt. Herman Rd.
Monument, CO 80132

Thanks!!!

Regarding the ‘LPHS Community Thanks Stew’ event…

We had hoped that this post would be to provide specifics as to the date for Stew’s event. We actually had tentative dates set but had been holding off announcing it officially due to the fact that Stew has been having some medical issues with his back. This summer he has endured two additional back surgeries ( #4 and #5 in total). These surgeries were meant to alleviate some rather severe back pain he has been experiencing. Unfortunately, they have not been successful in that regard. He remains in constant pain and would not be able to attend an event.

For this reason, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL NEXT SUMMER (summer of 2024).

We do fully intend on holding this event next summer. Please continue to send any comments, stories, and/or photos for us to add to the book we’ll be presenting to him at that time.

Our apologies for the late notice regarding the change of date. We kept putting off our tentative dates in hopes that he would be able to attend the event this summer. Unfortunately, each time we had intended on posting a date, he had a setback.

We hope to see all of you NEXT summer (date TBD). Please look here for any updates as we get closer.

In the interim, Stew could use all of your thoughts and prayers for his recovery.

Now that the Summer of 2022 is over, we can talk about the Summer of 2023! That’s when we are having the get-together for Stew. What we’d like to do is to get feedback from everyone as to the best part of the summer to have this. Realizing that each of us has such different schedules regarding vacations, schools, preferences and the like, we know we won’t be able to please everyone. What we would like to do is schedule a date in which the highest number of us who would like to attend will be able to do so.

Please post your thoughts (or PM them) as to when might work best. We will then try to come up with some type of consensus.

On another note, this is a reminder that we will be presenting Stew with a picture/comments book. Please post your comments (or PM them) to include:

-stories of how Stew positively impacted you
-funny stories
-best wishes
-whatever you choose to say!

Hope everyone is doing well!

As a follow-up to our initial post regarding the upcoming celebration for Rich ‘Stew’ Stewart, we continue to come up with some of the specifics (suggestions are always welcomed). Here is something that we are excited about putting together, and we believe will be very much appreciated by Stew:

At the celebration, we plan to present Stew with a book of COMMENTS and PHOTOS from those who’ve been impacted and influenced by him over the years. We are hoping that most of the comments, and a lot of the photos as well, will be received from you out there in Facebook-land posting them to the ‘LPHS Community Thanks Stew’ page. We will then take these and add them to the book. So please begin to add your comments and photos as these will need to be received early enough to include in the book. As was mentioned in the prior post, this celebration, with the book being part of that, is for ANYONE who has been positively impacted by something Stew said or did.

How often do we truly have an opportunity to thank those who’ve helped us along the way? We believe that this can be such an opportunity. We look forward to your comments and photos. Thank you in advance for helping us make this a special event for a special person!

The purpose of this page is to let people know that we are planning a reunion-like celebration for Rich “Stew” Stewart. “Stew” started teaching/coaching at Lewis-Palmer High School in 1973. He’s had, and continues to have, a positive impact on so many of us over the years. He has impacted students, athletes, fellow staff members and many others. Since 2023 marks 50 years since he started at LPHS, we are planning a SURPRISE celebration for the summer of 2023 to thank him for the positive influence he’s had on us. (Please don’t mention this to him…emphasis on SURPRISE).

This is not meant to be a gathering of just his top students, star athletes, or friends of his, for that matter. This is meant to be a reunion of anyone who feels that he made a positive impact on their lives. We continually hear stories of things he said and did to help others. Now’s the chance to bring those stories together!

The first step in putting this event together is to get the word out. A lot of people have passed through the halls of LPHS in 50 years! Some of you have been involved in coordinating your own class reunions; some simply have a lot of contacts through Facebook and other means. We would welcome any contacts anyone might have. If you could provide these via Facebook Messenger, that would be awesome.

As for the event itself, we are in the planning stages. While we have some ideas as to what we want to do, suggestions are welcomed. Again, please send any suggestions via Facebook Messenger.

We look forward to seeing you there!