Remember the 5

On Saturday, September 28, 1968, five Enterprise High School senior girls were en route to Susanville for a football game at Lassen High. The driver of the car was a 19 year-old friend of one of the girls. Three of the girls were cheerleaders/song leaders for the school, one was the Hornet mascot, and one was involved in student government.

Not far from Susanville, the driver passed a Ford Bronco at a high rate of speed, saw an oncoming logging truck, veered back into his lane, where his right wheels hit a roadside berm and he overcorrected into the path of the logging truck. According to CHP, the combined speed of the two vehicles was in the neighborhood of 125 mph. All five seniors and the car’s driver were killed instantly, and the logging truck driver suffered serious injury. The Enterprise Community mourned. Several thousand attended funeral services in the EHS gym.

After our senior year, the class chose to build a memorial fountain in memory of the girls. Twenty years later, led by classmates, it was determined that the fountain needed refurbishing, and it was rebuilt. Both these efforts included support from the members of the class and community. At the fifty year reunion of the class, several class members expressed concern about the maintenance and condition of the fountain. Two class members and a brother of one of the girls  began the process of planning a second rebuild of the fountain. We were astonished about how many EHS grads had no idea that there was a memorial fountain on campus. During that time, we also decided to develop scholarships in honor of the girls. Additionally, we created a video that told the story and could serve as a catalyst for curriculum – which we are now working on with the school. 

Since our inception in 2021, our group has been meeting regularly at Enterprise High, developing our plans to rebuild the fountain, award scholarships and create curriculum at the school. We have publicized our efforts through local media, met with and presented to community groups, written grant applications and have shared our information and materials at school and community events. We are especially indebted to Pat Corey at McHale’s Signs, Deven Carter at Nichols, Mehlburg and Rossetto, John Martin Streeby, Mike Lander Landscaping, Boundary Waters, JF Shea, Tom Allen of Guiton’s Pool and several others who have helped us move forward. We have joined forces with Impact Teen Drivers in Sacramento, a nationally recognized organization with goals parallel to ours. We are fundraising by selling bricks, t-shirts and bumper stickers and have had contributions from the families, alumni and the community totaling $40,000.00 to date. In addition to awarding scholarships and developing curriculum, our primary goal was to design a memorial in a manner that every EHS student will know and understand the story.   At this time, the Memorial itself has been finished and work now moves to additional landscaping to further develop the area to make it accessible and welcoming for students to have a place to relax and reflect.  Our goals include continuing to award more scholarships in the girls’ names, and introduce curriculum in the fall. We invite all community members to join us!

As we are part of a 501c3 Public Benefit Corporation (Enterprise High School Parent Teacher Student Association), Remember the 5 needs your support.  Please donate!  With your help we can finish the Memorial Plaza this summer.