quicklinks

 Connecting generosity and joy since 2011

The JBHS Alumni Association is a volunteer group of Alumni who are working together to reconnect alumni thru our Newsletter, Facebook page, and our Online Website. We organize events, fundraisers, have donated to the Athletics Hall of Fame to help with the installation of the Display Case, and launched a capital campaign to build the JBHSAA Reading Room. All of the money raised supports Scholarships for deserving seniors as well as other JBHS initiatives.

LIKE our Joel Barlow High School Alumni Association Facebook page (see Link above) and feel free to Post photos, Share and ask questions.

This is the "Official" JBHS Alumni Association place where we share most of our information. (In addition to this website) Please beware of other links, they are not endorsed or in no way part of the actual JBHSAA that we formed in 2011; the first and only alumni organization ever at Joel Barlow High School and ask for your participation and donations.

Our very first Capital Campaign to fund the creation of the JBHSAA Reading Room has been a success and raised funds exceeding our goal! The JBHSAA Reading Room opened on June 11, 2022. Thank you to all for making this possible! 

Please stay connected and let us hear from you so we can share your news. Contact infojbhsaa@gmail.com.
We are grateful to all who have supported us and continue to do so. 
Mary Mahony and
​The JBHSAA Board
BUY A BRICK AND ADD TO OUR GROWING JBHSAA WALK OF FAME
 
       JOEL BARLOW HIGH SCHOOL HALL OF FAME 

      JBHS Sports Update: News from the Athletic                                              Department

            JBHS HALL OF FAME 2022 INDUCTEES
Delaney Bracken  Chris Lindwall  Tyler Colby  Amanda Macchio
Samantha Macchio  Kara Davis  Patrick Eaker  Ed Myers
Tito Gonzalez  Jeff Peach  Kelly Haines  Pasquale Pilato
Robby Harder  Ashley Scavo Kubo
Fiorella Johnson Scott Stevens Sr.
Congratulations to all for this well-deserved honor.

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         ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT/DEBBIE COLE, CLASS OF '70
For those of us who attended JBHS in the early years, girls were required to wear skirts. Pants were never ever allowed. If you graduated prior to 1970, this was a steadfast rule and no one dared to challenge it.  
 
That all changed in 1970 when Debbie Cole, JBHS Class of '70, made a call from a pay phone outside of the JBHS cafeteria to the American Civil Liberties Union. At the time, the principal of JBHS had sent Debbie home from school on numerous occasions for wearing pants. As a result of Debbie's call, the ACLU sent a pamphlet to Debbie's home with the information Debbie was looking for that would eventually result in girls being able to wear pants to school. When Debbie read the paragraph in the pamphlet under the heading "PERSONAL APPEARANCE," it was clear that uniformity pertained to the health and safety of students and if it did not, it was violating the civil liberties of the students. The more she read the more Debbie was convinced that in fact there was no reason for girls to only wear skirts to school. 

Long story short, from 1971 on, Debbie Cole is the reason that female students were allowed to start wearing pants at Barlow. Kudos to Debbie!

Debbie went on to receive a 20K grant from the Kiwanis to rent a storefront in Danbury and support a startup effort. Along with a Danbury friend named Talmadge Mayo and several others, they began a program called FRONT. FRONT was a hotline for kids in trouble. This is where Debbie spent her after high school days. It was a very successful program manned by many volunteers that developed into an ongoing program in Danbury.  Eventually the name of the program was changed while it continued to provide services to youths in need. . 

 After building a real estate career in NYC and Philadelphia, Debbie moved back to Connecticut and joined Sotheby's as a real estate agent. It was then that she met her husband, Fred. Today Debbie goes by her grown up name, Deborah. She and her husband have now relocated to South East Florida where Deborah continues to work for Sotheby's.

Although not particularly involved in Barlow activities while in high school, Debbie has been a tremendous asset to the JBHSAA, has worked hard to bring the JBHS Class of '70 together. She is also responsible for our Face book page that she continues to update. By far her greatest achievement while at Barlow was changing the dress code so that girls could finally wear pants. THANK YOU DEBBIE (DEBORAH) COLE!