I was part of the first graduating class of St. Albert the Great grade school back in 1972. When someone from the class posted a suggestion for a 50th Reunion there seemed to be great enthusiasm for participating, but not anyone to do the work of putting it on. Always looking for firsts to do and experience I volunteered to do the work and take the lead for the 50th reunion. I enlisted a few of my classmates to help plan and find as many of my one hundred and forty-three classmates to contact and invite. We worked from the class pictures we dug up. There were some names and faces that I sadly could not remember at all. We spent months searching and working on obtaining contact information. Ten percent of the class had passed. We could not locate another ten percent. We found most and sent invites in a variety of ways. Thirty percent never responded to the invitation. It was a lot of work. But as it turned out it was well worth the effort!
We had about half the class show up. Since I was the organizer, I played host and gave out nametags. Many I had not seen in fifty years. We needed the nametags for a few. Time had made some of them unrecognizable. Everyone looked great, minus some hair, an expanded waistline, with a few added wrinkles. But you know what, it didn’t matter. It seemed like we picked up right where we had left off, as if time had not passed. We had come from the same place. We had shared experiences. We just had to play catch up on how many kids or grandkids had materialized over the years. Amazing. We had survived and mostly thrived. Some of the finer things in life are aged… Wine, Whiskey and FRIENDS!
I received SO MANY positive comments. Per one of the alumni … “the vibe in the room was so filled with love and smiling faces – everything was perfect.” Sometimes “firsts” take a lot of work. Putting together a 50 Year Grade School Reunion is one of them – what a cherished First!