Dear Blair alumni,

It has been two years since I laid Keith’s, my only son, body to rest. How do you acknowledge a day that carries deep grief in not having him with me? Every day and especially at holidays, his birthday, and his memorial day I feel the pain of losing him. Many others experience the pain that suicide causes when they lose a love one to this epidemic.

Suicide can be prevented, and it starts with everyday heroes like us! In memory of Keith and others who you might have known personally who took their life’s please join me and a community of 250k people walking in hundreds of cities across the country to fight suicide in an Out of the Darkness Walk.

I am participating in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s (AFSP), Out of the Darkness Walk in downtown Frederick, Maryland on October 20, 2018. Please consider joining me in stopping suicide by donating to Keith’s Team and/or participating in the walk as a member of Keith’s Team. To do this please access afsp.donordrive.com and follow the instructions provided on how to make a donation as well as how to register to walk with Keith’s Team.

Your tax-deductible contribution will support the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the leader in the fight against suicide. AFSP funds research, offers educational programs, advocates for public policy, and provides support to those affected by suicide.

Donating online is safe and easy! To make an online donation click the link at the bottom of this email and then click the "Donate" button on my fundraising page. If you would rather donate by check, please make the check payable to AFSP, Keith’s Team, Out of the Darkness Walk, Frederick, MD. Mail your check with your completed offline donation form to AFSP, 120 Wall Street, 29th Floor, NY, NY 10005.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me or visit www.outofthedarkness.org if you have any questions about the Out of the Darkness Community Walks or AFSP. I hope I am able to count on you to join my team and help me honor Keith by supporting this great cause.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Rose Van Camp
Blair class of 1968

REUNION LESSONS LEARNED

I have never been a program manager in my professional life, but I have participated in many and have  witnessed my fair share of good and mostly bad programs and program managers.  So even though taking on our 50th reunion project was a daunting task,  I would like to think it was both well run and enjoyed by the vast majority who participated.  I was blessed to have a team of talented, hard working, and creative volunteers who made my job easy and enjoyable.

Judging from some early survey results and my personal observations and classmate interactions, I think we can declare it a success.  Overall, most everybody had a good time, and we did it almost within our budget (slightly less than 2% over budget - coming from a Federal Government background, that's a huge success).

After a program has completed, all good program managers of well run programs should review the program as a lessons learned activity to help them manage future programs.  With our 50th reunion planning, I believe we have created an infrastructure that can be used in all future class planning activities.  Namely, we have a checking account and more importantly a class website.  I believe the website was fundamental for our huge turnout - 143 (102 classmates and 41 guests) attendees for Saturday night.  The website allows classmates to communicate with one another and is the clearing house for all class activities and announcements.  Whoever may choose to organize future reunions will have the benefit of this infrastuctue.

From what I have been able to glean from the early surveys and my own personal observations and conversations, any reunion should have its primary emphasis on the following activities:

  1. Eating

  2. Mingling with classmates

 3. Music from back in the day

 4. Dancing

 5. Eating

On a  personal note, I can't hear very well and never was a particulary good dancer, so 1 and 5 are very important to me - you can call me anything, just not late to dinner.  On a more serious vein, anything that detracts from the above requirements should be eliminated or at least minimized.  People are hungry - they want to eat immediately.  Then they want to mingle, listen to the music, dance, and eat again.  To that end, I respectfully make the following two recommendations to improve our reunion experience:

1. Eliminate all speeches and special presentations.  As great as some of those may have been, they all could have been presented via the website.  Why take up valuble time with your friends for something that can be done off-line?

2. Have one class picture at an agreed upon time (after the meal) that is well advertised ahead of time via the website.  As for other junior high, elementary school, clubs, sports team, etc. pictures, that can be done on an impromptu basis between you and the photographer.

So that's my two cents from where I sit.  I look forward to attending future reunions (and the bi-monthly lunches) and to having fun with all my classmates.

Joel Nathan