Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
It all started with a sign. Last December, members of Pocahontas County High School Class of 1986 donated funds to replace the school sign located on Rt. 28 at the football field.
The original sign is special to that class because several of them helped build it when they were in carpentry class.
One of those students was Michael Beverage. A couple years ago, Beverage came back to Pocahontas County for Thanksgiving. He was out for a drive with his dad and saw the sign.
“I had not been by that school in probably thirty-five years,” Beverage said. “Since I graduated, maybe once. As we went by the sign, I asked my dad to stop. I got out and took pictures. Quite frankly, I got a little emotional.”
From there, Beverage and his fellow classmates pitched in and quickly had enough funds for a new school sign.
A year later, Beverage, who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, returned for a visit and wanted to do more. He got with fellow classmate and friend Shelly Dean Hartmann, and the two visited PCHS to talk to the students about what they can expect after school and tried to help them be prepared for the future.
“I told that story [about the sign],” Beverage said. “I said life’s a puzzle. That’s a puzzle piece I didn’t realize I had missed and that sign brought it home to me that I should be doing more for where I came from.”
Beverage and Hartmann talked to the students about how they sat in the same desks and took the long bus rides and understood that it is hard to show up every day, but it is important to do just that, in order to succeed.
“We know it’s hard,” Hartmann said. “We played basketball and this and that sports – getting in at one and getting back up at six.”
While there are obstacles, Beverage said it’s those obstacles that shaped him into the person he is today. He doesn’t take for granted the effort that was put into going to PCHS.
“That is what has driven me in my career all the way through because when I get out into the cities, people don’t understand what it took for me to just go to school,” he said. “Really, that’s been the drive I’ve had with most of my career. I was always willing to stay late. I was always willing to go the extra mile. I got those traits by being at Pocahontas County High School.”
Beverage shared that he wanted to be an electrical engineer, but when he got to college, he realized he was not as prepared as he hoped he would be. One of his biggest regrets – which he shared with the students – was that he didn’t seek more help in high school to ensure he was prepared for the college level courses.
“The very first class of electronics I had, I was in way over my head,” he said. “That was a failure of mine from high school because I did not go get extra help when I should have.”
Beverage dropped out of electrical engineering and instead got a business degree, which he used to become very successful.
He worked for PayPal and helped the company build a foundation for all its offices worldwide which helped the business thrive.
“They said, ‘okay, you’ve got two weeks to figure out how you want to do that,’” Beverage said. “I got some software available; got some folks and we went to it. We worked really hard at it, and I got to fly all over the world because of this.”
Hartmann went to college and got an accounting degree. She was an accountant for a while before she became the Chief Information Officer for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.
“I went to Fairmont State and ended up working for the federal government for thirty-five years and have now retired,” she said.
Hartmann told the students about some of the fun things at Fish and Wildlife that she was able to do, such as landing on a glacier and fixing radio towers.
The two alums also talked about forming relationships and how important the relationships you have in high school can be into adulthood.
“Shelly and I have, technically, been friends for fifty-two years and there are multiple people that I went to PCHS with that I still talk to today,” Beverage said. “There are zero, probably, that I’ve talked to from college.”
“We talked about how we don’t remember any of our professors’ names in college, but we remember all of our high school teachers names,” Hartmann said. “We would come in early if we needed help and we’d go to our friends and get help or go to the teachers and get help.”
They talked to the students about their goals and how it is important to have both short term and long-term goals written down.
In addition to talking to students who are planning to attend college, they also spoke to students who want to enter the workforce out of high school. They shared important information about how to act in a job interview and what they should do to prepare for meeting with potential employers.
“Research the company,” Hartmann said. “Have questions to ask. Lean into the interview and don’t slouch.”
“We went through kind of an interview type thing with them,” Beverage added. “If I was doing the interview, I’d shake the guy’s hand and then I would pull up the chair and look him in the eye and lean in a little bit.”
While they were at the school, Beverage and Hartmann also checked on the progress of the new school sign.
“They got the carpentry class and the welding class working on it,” Hartmann said.
“We were excited to see what they had planned and all the people that were going to be involved,” Beverage added.
Once a Warrior, always a Warrior is a feeling held by a lot of alumni from PCHS. Beverage and Hartmann are two examples of that. Both were so pleased with the time they spent with the students that they plan to return and follow up with them.
Beverage also encouraged other alumni to reach out to the school and offer any kind of help they can give to their alma mater.
