Barrington High alums reconnect to reunite stricken classmate with long-lost, award-winning school project

The crew who refurbished former Barrington High School graduate Mike Vajda’s award-winning desk from 1982 are clockwise from front left, former teacher Jay Schollmeyer, Paul Epperson, Mike Bloodworth, John Bjerga, Brad Pomoroy and Mike Cox.
Courtesy of Paul Epperson

It started with a picture and a question.

As part of a group text chain he maintains with former classmates, Mike Vajda posted a picture of the desk he built in their high school wood shop class more than 40 years ago, and the group pondered its whereabouts.

That set in motion an odyssey that would ultimately reconnect five Barrington High School graduates and their beloved teacher who tracked down the award-winning desk and refurbished it.

Soon it will be delivered to Vajda as he continues to recover from surgery and treatment that removed a cancerous brain tumor he developed while working at Ground Zero in the aftermath of 9/11.

“I just thought, well, maybe Mike can sit down and read the paper and have a cup of coffee at a piece of his past that he didn’t ever think he’d see again,” said former classmate Paul Epperson. “As soon as the idea got posted, the group just went bananas.”

Last month, Vajda’s classmates and former instructor traveled to downstate Macomb, where they restored to pristine condition the desk that had won a blue ribbon at the statewide technology competition held at Western Illinois University in 1982. That blue ribbon vaulted students in Jay Schollmeyer’s wood shop class to the event’s Sweepstakes Trophy.

“If you think about it, as a teacher, how much more proud could you be?” said Schollmeyer, who lives in Naperville now. “Despite the different jobs that they’ve had, careers they’ve had, this is something they want to do for somebody that they had a connection with in high school. It’s incredible.”

After high school Vajda went on to become a firefighter in New Jersey. He was one of the first on the scene as part of the rescue — and eventual recovery — efforts at Ground Zero on 9/11 and the days afterward.

Vajda paid a price for his heroic efforts. The physical and mental toll eventually included being stricken with brain cancer.

His classmates were moved by his journey.

Jay Schollmeyer, center, and his former Barrington High School students work in Macomb to repair the desk built by classmate Mike Vajda that took the blue ribbon at the technology competition at Western Illinois University in 1982.
Courtesy of Paul Epperson

By refurbishing Vajda’s award-winning desk, the group of former classmates reconnected with him and will provide him with a reminder of something positive from his past.

The desk is now in Kentucky, awaiting a reunion with Vajda at his home in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, on Nov. 16.

This saga was also a chance for everyone involved to recollect a special time in their lives. This wasn’t just any wood shop class. The students created an array of award-winning furniture — highboys, couches, coffee tables, end tables, break front dressers.

“He put no limitations on what we could build,” one of the students, Paul Epperson said of their instructor.

A group of Barrington High School graduates are seen here at work with their former teacher Jay Schollmeyer, left, repairing Mike Vajda’s award-winning desk recently.
Courtesy of Paul Epperson

Epperson, a 1983 BHS graduate who now lives in St. Charles, Missouri, said “Scholl,” as he is known, was more than a teacher. He was a mentor to his students, who were so enthusiastic about the work that Schollmeyer would deny them the opportunity to work on projects after school as a means of punishment.

Epperson said the students recently reconnected via the group chat by posting pictures of projects from more than 40 years ago. They also learned about Vajda’s situation.

Vajda immediately left the Barrington area after high school, eventually winding up in New Jersey and his career as a firefighter.

On 9/11, he joined a New Jersey state police rescue team of around 200 people and headed to Ground Zero.

A jubilant group of Barrington High School students celebrate winning the Sweepstakes Trophy in the technology competition at Western Illinois University in 1982.
Courtesy of Paul Epperson

The memories linger. Vajda remembers arriving as the towers were coming down.

“When we were setting up, people were still jumping,” he said.

He recalls how the flurry of debris reminded him of a snowstorm.

“Everywhere you went, you were a good 8 to 10 inches in ash and debris from the buildings,” he said.

The task force members worked 12-hour shifts, as the mission shifted from rescue to recovery.

“We found all kinds of stuff,” he said. “I found a hand still holding the receiver for a phone.”

Mike Vajda with his award-winning desk in 1982, which won blue ribbon at a state competition that year.
Courtesy of Paul Epperson

Vajda was not only left with haunting memories from the experience. It also took a physical toll.

“I was fine. I was getting checkups all along for those 20 years,” he said.

That changed in late 2019 when Vajda suffered a seizure. Doctors found a brain tumor, and tests confirmed it was cancer. He underwent surgery in 2020.

Doctors said his health issues stemmed from exposure to Ground Zero.

Curiosity about the fate of his desk was part of the nostalgia someone might feel when faced with a life-threatening disease.

“I saw it once, a long time ago, at my father’s house in Arkansas, but I hadn’t seen it since then,” he said.

As it turned out, the desk had traveled for years with his late father and late stepmother. It wound up at the home his stepmother’s sister inherited from her sister and brother-in-law in Greers Ferry, Arkansas.

Signatures from the former Barrington High School students who pitched in to restore Mike Vajda’s award-winning desk.
Courtesy of Paul Epperson

The next step was getting it to Vajda.

Epperson, a former airline pilot, learned that someone he had trained to fly was headed to Arkansas. He convinced him to go two hours out of his way to pick up the desk. He then took it to Branson, Missouri.

Epperson and another buddy picked up the desk and drove it back to St. Charles. Epperson then hauled it back to the scene of its former glory, Macomb, where his late uncle had a wood shop.

Then last month, the group of six men — Schollmeyer and former students Epperson, Mike Bloodworth, John Bjerga, Brad Pomoroy and Mike Cox — spent three days repairing and refinishing.

“Nobody had to be asked,” Epperson said. “Everybody was inspired to do this for Mike. It was emotional.”

The desk, he said, “was structurally sound, but cosmetically, it was in pretty crummy condition and it had some broken drawers and a few things where it needed some structural work, but amazingly solid, considering.”

Now, though, “It looks awesome.”

Time had passed, but some things stayed the same. Schollmeyer immediately took charge, barking out commands and telling the “kids” things like, “The car’s not going to unload itself.”

“This bond he created with us stood the test of time,” Epperson said.

One of the men, Mike Cox, took the desk to his shop in Kentucky. Three men in the group will deliver it personally to Vajda.

Vajda will also receive a “bent nail” award inside the desk. During Schollmeyer’s days at BHS, the top projects in his class would receive the award, consisting of a garden spike driven through a rectangular block.

“I have no words to describe it,” Vajda said. “I’ve told them I don’t know how I could ever say thank you for what you’re doing for me.”