Return of an Idol
Ed Kracz
Daily Intelligencer (Doylestown, PA), April 28, 2008
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113-04282008-1525998.html

He made his entrance singing, as if any other way would have been more appropriate. “Happy Birthday” would have worked, since Lenape Middle School turned 50 at the start of the school year. Instead, he entered to a song he sang when he was a student at Lenape in the early 1990s.

Shortly after Lenape's choir began singing, “Sometimes, I feel like a motherless child,” Justin Guarini peeled back the red curtain on the stage inside the school auditorium and joined in.

Guarini, who rose to fame during the debut season of “American Idol” in 2002 and has lived in Hollywood, Calif., for the last six years, attended Lenape in the early 1990s and was one of hundreds of alumni and former faculty members invited back for Sunday's 50th anniversary celebration. Alecia Moore, also known as two-time Grammy winner Pink, was on the invite list, since she too attended Lenape and even sang in the same choir with Guarini back then, but Moore never showed.

“It feels real good to be home,” said Guarini, who ultimately graduated from Central Bucks East in 1997. “I was excited to come because this will always be home to me.”

As part of the celebration, fireworks took place later, but Guarini got them started early.

“I went to his concert last year and he's awesome,” said Heather Wismer, a ninth-grade member of the choir. “To know that you walk the same hallways as he did, maybe even having the same locker he did — I don't know if I do or not — is just awesome.”

After finishing the song with the choir, Guarini sang three more songs for the standing-room only crowd, including one, “Missing You,” that will be on his third album, which he hopes to release later this year or early next year. It was during “Missing You” when the rows started glowing blue as many in the crowd turned on cell phone cameras, digital cameras and recorders.

“The coolest part about him being here is that the kids get to sing with him and they see what life after Lenape can be; it can be whatever they want it to be, they just have to go for it,” said Lenape's instrumental music teacher, Bridgett Gordon, whose 30-member jazz band played for visitors as they arrived at the school.

The four-hour event took about nine months to plan, said Lenape assistant principal Stephen Albert, and that included the hot dogs. About 1,500 of them were brought in, to serve the approximately 2,000 people who were expected to show up.

Invitations were mailed to alumni and former faculty members, and classrooms were set up with yearbooks and photos for alumni from each decade to visit and view.

Lenape opened its doors on Sept. 4, 1957, and was the first junior high school in the Central Bucks School District. The district now has five middle schools, and Lenape is the smallest of that group, with a current enrollment of 840 students.

The building received an addition in 1995 and, beginning Monday, will undergo a two-year renovation that will add a few more classrooms and relocate the administrative offices.

“Obviously, this is not a celebration about a building, but about community and people in the community,” said Lenape principal Nick Chubb, who attended then later taught at Lenape.

Lenape's first principal, James Hockman, attended and spoke, as did Dr. Christopher Unger, Lenape Class of 1958, who was introduced to speak at the auditorium podium as the first doctor Lenape produced.

Guarini, though, was clearly the showstopper.

One alumni faculty member in attendance was Cyndy Young, who was the music teacher at Lenape from 1982 before moving over to Central Bucks South when South opened in January 2005.

Guarini, who will turn 30 in October, credited Young for his singing career, otherwise, he said, he may have followed his father into law enforcement and become an FBI sharpshooter. Now, he is working as a host on the cable television network, TV Guide Network and is auditioning for Broadway shows.

“I met Justin when he was in eighth grade,” said Young. “He was sitting in the back of the class flirting with the girls when I heard this beautiful voice. I said to him, "Justin, I think you've been holding out on me. I want you to stay after class so I can talk to you.' ”

The girls still flock around him.

After he was done performing, he was mobbed by them in a school hallway, posing for photos and signing autographs.

“I'm fortunate people still remember me, after five years,” he said.