SVMS Dedicates Sports Pavilion to Lynn Beebe

When longtime Scotts Valley Middle School employee Lynn Beebe lost her three-year battle to cancer in January, a void was felt on the campus by the many faculty and students who crossed paths with her daily. So it was only fitting that they came up with a way to remember her by and ensure that her legacy lives on at the school forever.

On Wednesday afternoon, students, teachers, administrators and community members stood outside of the newly-minted Lynn Beebe Memorial Pavilion, a place where Beebe spent numerous hours as the school’s athletic director mentoring young athletes, to honor and remember Beebe and her contributions to the school.

“Our family can’t imagine a location that would be a more fitting spot for a memorial and testament to Lynn’s dedication to the school,” said Dave Beebe, Lynn’s brother.

The idea to rename the school’s sport pavilion was a student-generated one Principal Mary Lonhart said. Beebe, who worked at the school for nearly 20 years as an athletic director and more recently a counselor, touched a number of lives and Lonhart said it was important to everyone to keep her memory alive.

“When we lost Lynn, we just started talking about what we were going to do to keep her in our memories and up in the forefront forever,” Lonhart said.

Lonhart added that it was a real community effort to get the project done. Along with plaques on the outside and inside of the pavilion, the building was cleaned up, the two planters outside were redone with new woodchips and flowers, and new championship banners and a new American flag were hung. All the materials and labor were donated by community members.

Scotts Valley Middle School Student Body President Megan Lonhart said that Beebe meant a lot to the students.

“If you had a really bad day, you could go and talk to her and she would brighten up our day,” Megan said. “She was helpful with everything and every single student knew her. You always had a great time when you were with her.”

Megan added that renaming and cleaning up the pavilion just seemed like the natural way to honor Beebe.

“Most students who play sports or come to dances here have fun in the pavilion, so we wanted to show that with dedicating the pavilion to her,” she said.

Dave Beebe said that the pavilion is a special place for his family, not only because of Lynn’s connection to it, but also because both he and his two sons played sports there when they were students at SVMS.

Dave added that Lynn was a very humble person and that she would have laughed off the attention and found a way to divert it to something else.

“Lynn would probably be a little embarrassed by all of this attention and honor. She would be quick to point out the many achievements and contributions of other teachers, administrators, counselors and coaches with whom she served, and of those that came before her that are not fortunate enough to have their contribution so overtly memorialized,” he said. “Lynn would ask that her name on this building be merely emblematic of the long, long list of people who have dedicated their lives to mentoring and educating the young people of Scotts Valley.”