Reunion Committee

Your Committee Members: Sandy Coldwell (Higham), Dan Geuder, Ed Gordon, Marilyn Landwehr (Courtney), Bill Ray, Lynn Rozin (Holtegel), Bonnie Short (Corns), and Betty Jo Tandy (Lieland), .

As they looked in 1964 (on a good day):

For the "Now" pictures, scroll down to see photos taken at committee meetings and other functions.

The first 45-year reunion committee meeting was held at Ed's house on July 27, 2008. It was a preliminary meeting to get our feet on the ground and chart a course of action.

8/24/08 Meeting at Marilyn's house: This was an important meeting because food became a central issue. Not for the reunion, but for the poor souls doing the planning. Marilyn had prepared some very good hors d'oeuvres that everyone chowed down before getting down to serious reunion planning. At this meeting we decided that a class website would be the best way to communicate among our classmates. We just had to figure out how to best make it happen.

10/12/08 Meeting at BJ's house: We discussed making our reunion a 3 day event. Drinks at the Applewood in Aurora on Friday night, Banquet on Saturday night and a picnic on Sunday. We ate!!!

10/22/08 Meeting with Dearborn Country Club: BJ and Dan met with Chris Helms, Banquet Manager, at the DCC. We discussed options and available dates for our reunion. We reserved August 15 for the reunion and made the required $100.00 deposit.

11/9/08 Meeting at Marilyn's house: After eating, Dan and BJ discussed the menu for the Banquet and updated the committee on their meeting with Chris Helms. We also discussed the possible cost per classmate for the Banquet. Having a class float in the 2009 Farmers Fair Parade was brought up. BJ volunteered to do a spread sheet of our classmates from Freshman year through our Senior year.

12/9/08 Dinner at Willie's Sports Cafe: The committee decided to unwind a little for the holidays at Willie's at Hidden Valley Lake.

1/11/09 Meeting at Ed's house: Night at the movies! Ed showed the video from our 25th reunion. We looked great. It brought back alot of happy memories seeing all our old (not in years) classmates. We are so excited about this year's reunion and watching the movie really helped to boost that excitement. Refreshments were served during the movie. Spread sheets were distributed.

2/8/09 Meeting at BJ's house: Dan had launched the trial website prior to the meeting. After much searching Dan found a Carey Jones in Texas. We called and YES it was our Carey Jones. We called and everyone got to talk to him. Hopefully he will try to make our reunion. We also contacted Doug Bradford and Steve Cherry.

2/22/09 Meeting at Bonnie's house: Website is up and running. Dan has done a GREAT job. We contacted a few more of our classmates to get their input on the website and to update their profiles. Hopefully by April we will have everyone on board. We also planned a night at Jim and Jack's (local club on River Road) to hear "Hot Wax" a 50's/60's band. All work and no play.............Of course, we ate.

Bonnie and the good food she nourished us with

2/28/09 Get together at Jim and Jack's: We celebrated the end of February at Jim and Jack's with Fish sandwiches and listening to "Hot Wax". A little business was discussed, but mainly we just enjoyed the show (which was superb). A terrific time was had by all.

The Committee - Before the Food & the Show

The Hot Wax Show

3/8/09 Meeting at Marilyn's house: After consuming food and drink provided by Marilyn, Dan provided an updated class list to the other attending committee members (Ed, Lynn, and Marilyn). Bonnie was on sick leave and BJ was basking in the sun in Arizona. Even though they were not present, they had been busy doing committe work in absentia. We phoned more classmates to inform them about our website and reunion. We also discussed the need to send hard copy reunion announcements to classmates who do not have internet access.

Lynn navigating our website on her iPhone as Ed & Marilyn observe

Dan on his cell phone talking with Pam Walker

3/22/09 Meeting at Ed's house:

Dan passed out samples of name tags for us to try. We spent the rest of the night remembering who we were. The cost for the reunion banquet at the Country Club was finalized. We decided that $35.00 per person should cover all our costs. Since our last meeting, we have been busy getting in touch with our classmates to tell them about our class website. Marilyn showed us the devil logo that will be used on sweatshirts and t-shirts that will be offered for sale in the near future. We also finalized the colors for the shirts.

Ed made crock pot pizza which was soooo good, that most of us went back for seconds.

CHECK OUT THOSE COOL NAME TAGS!!!!!

Was the committee happy the name tags passed the 4-hour test or could it have been something in the drinks?

4/5/09 Meeting at BJ's house:

Our class list was updated and we discussed who still needs to be contacted. Dan sent invitations to our website to those who have been contacted and as yet have not updated their profiles. Marilyn showed us a sample of the quality of t-shirts we are having printed. We have chosen white with red lettering for the t-shirts and red with white lettering for the sweatshirts. We plan to post pictures of each as soon as they are made available.

As usual, BJ fed us well. Check out the scrumptious dessert bowl next to her!

4/19/09 Meeting at Bonnie's house:

We talked about the need to send letters to our classmates who do not have e-mails. Dan will compose a letter for our approval at the next meeting. We expressed some concern for those who have been contacted and as yet have not updated their profiles. A couple of classmates did respond to the invitations that were sent out at our last meeting.

The committee has tentatively decided on the price for the t-shirts ($10.00) and the sweatshirts ($20.00). Marilyn will try and have a sample of one with our logo at the next meeting.

5/03/09 Meeting at Marilyn's house:

Marilyn had a sample t-shirt for our inspection. It looked great. It was made of heavy cotton. The sample was a size Large. Showing up at the meeting to help was Sandy Coldwell. She had recently returned to Aurora from Flordia. Sandy modeled our new t-shirt, the results of which are in the following photo:

5/24/09 Meeting at BJ's house:

We worked on the reunion announcement letter to be sent to those classmates who we do not have an email address for. We are ahead of the schedule we had for the last reunion, but we wanted to get the letter out ASAP. Therefore, we scheduled a meeting the next week with the goal of completing the letter and the reunion registration form to be mailed. The next meeting was scheduled for June 1.

6/1/09 Meeting at Marilyn's house:

We completed the reunion announcement letter and the registration form. We printed out 50 copies of each and mailed 35 copies to selected classmates. A few more mailing will probably need to be made as we get new address information.

6/14/09 Meeting at Ed's house:

Since the last meeting Marilyn, had gotten current mailing addresses for 2 more classmates, and had sent them Reunion Announcement letters. We went over the classmate list and decided we needed to send out 7 more Reunion Announcement letters, bringing our total mailing to 44 letters. Our website has 53 classmates registered, which includes 4 without email addresses that were registered by the Site Administrator with the classmates’ permission. We still have a few classmates that have not been able to verify mailing addresses. We also discussed the need to get payment forms and instructions on the website for those classmates on the website who have indicated they will be attending the reunion. In addition we need to get order forms for the t-shirts and sweatshirts. Dan said would take care of getting that information on the website. We also discussed reunion program ideas, the program booklet, table decorations, and the “in memory” display. We are going to try to incorporate our class flower, apple blossom, into the programs booklet and the decorations. Ed agreed to again serve as the Reunion MC and Dan will provide the sound system and music.

6/28/09 Meeting at Bonnie's house:

What a fun meeting! We finalized the picture for on the cover of the programs, discussed the decorations and the need to look into having a banner made with our class motto, and the need for a deadline for reservations. We would like to have the majority of the money in for the banquet by the end of July.

We are going to send an invitation to the teachers inviting them to be our guest at the banquet.

Dan showed us the order form for the t-shirts and sweatshirts, also for making your reservations for the banquet. It was approved and is posted on the web site.

We truly got alot accomplished, had a great time doing it, but best of all we laughed.

7/12/09 Meeting at Marilyn's house:

We approved the cover for the class booklet. Discussed the agenda for the Banquet and set up of the room.

Invitations have been sent to the teachers. Sandy is working on the center pieces, Bonnie is making a new memorial board in order to add the 4 classmates we have lost in the past 5 years. Marilyn is looking into a photographer for the Banquet. The rest of us, well I'm not quite sure, except we seem to add alot of 2 cents.

The t-shirts and sweatshirts turned out really nice. Got to have one!!!

7/19/09 Meeting at Marilyn's house:

Everyone present except for BJ, who was on vacation. She left word to email her all specifics.

We accomplished quite a lot, with a lot yet to be done. We decided to meet more frequently as time grows short.

We approved the plans for table decorations and the memorial board and will work on them at the next meeting. We are going to postpone completing the booklets so we can add new information as needed. We will work on those last.

Everything is coming together nicely. We are getting excited about the final outcome. We are hoping for a big success.

We finished the night with a dessert that was from the past, "smores". Needless to say, we laughed as we ate them, they are quite messy, but very good.

Our next meeting will be on a Tuesday, August 4th at Marilyn's house. All of our supplies are there so Marilyn has been kind enough to put up with us once again.

8/4/09 Meeting at Marilyn's house
8/9/09 Meeting at Marilyn's house
8/12/09 Meeting at Marilyn's house:

The last three meetings before the reunion were devoted to numerous tasks required to prepare for the three reunion events.

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