Early History

The very first Prep parents' coalitions date back to the late 1800s. During these years, the Prep — still known as the Second Division of St. John's College — was a boarding school, and so, it was typical that the students spent Thanksgiving together at Rose Hill. It became the tradition that every Thanksgiving a loosely organized group of parents — in communication by letter or  telegraph or early phone service, one would presume — would make a coordinated effort to see to it that all the food and other goods required for a proper Thanksgiving feast were ordered and shipped to the campus. The Prefects' (Deans') diaries from those days are filled with references to the boxes and crates arriving for a week in anticipation of the holiday.