PORT ORCHARD — Cedar Heights Middle School will celebrate its 50th-anniversary with a tailgate bash and rival football match on Wednesday, May 15 at the school.

The 50th-anniversary celebration will begin with a carnival that will include games and exhibitions, said Kristen Klein, a volunteer coordinator and community liaison for the school.

A football game against arch-rival Marcus Whitman Middle School will take place at 5 p.m. It will be preceded by pre-game events from 3-5 p.m.

Halftime entertainment includes a performance by the Cedar Heights Middle School Dance Team, a South Kitsap High/Cedar Heights band performance and a 50-year group photo.

Attendees are encouraged to wear their orange and black colors to celebrate being part of the Raindevils contingent.

Here are some notable facts about the school’s 50-year history:

• It was the first open-concept junior high built in Washington state.
• Rodeos on the school grounds in the 1970s featured bull and broncho riding and calf roping.
• Science fairs and air shows also were staged on the school grounds from 1982-84, which included helicopters, Navy flyovers, hang gliders and paratroopers.
• The first materials science classes in Kitsap County started at Cedar Heights in 1986.
• CHTV — Cedar Heights TV — won national awards during the 1986-87 school year.
• The school’s “Raindevil Montage” award-winning magazine was published in 1987.
• The first robotics classes in Kitsap County were started at the school in 2008.
• Cedar Heights was named a Washington State School of Distinction in 2015.
• It was the first international baccalaureate middle school in Kitsap County in 2018.
• The proud home of the Raindevils since 1969, Cedar Heights is the only school in the world to have that mascot. It originated because the school’s first principal, who hailed from Arizona, wanted to use a “sundevil-like” image for the school’s mascot.
• Field trips were made to every Washington state county seat in the 1990s.