I have changed this Message Forum to Member Chatter so we do not have two different Message Forum web pages.  Member Chatter is an ongoing dialogue between classmates. There are no topics, subtopics, etc. like there is in the Message Forum web page.

Member Chatter works when people participate - so don't be bashful! Click the "Post Response" button to add your entry.

Toni Ricciardelli (Sim)

So sorry to hear about Luis. Armando, please let him and his family know how many of his classmates are praying for him. Praying for his health to improve very soon.

Also, praying for Sharon Vass' daughter. I hope she knows how many are praying for her daughter during this difficult time.  Prayer is so powerful. I fully believe in it. My daughter is currently battling breast cancer and many prayers have been answered lately in her regard. God is good and works miracles thru prayer...I've got all you all in my prayers too!  

Glenn Gonzalez

Toni and Tom, thank you for prayers for our classmates and their families.  I had some email communications with Louie's wife, Dora, this past week.  While Louie is still not well, they are hoping and planning to attend our reunion.  Let's keep on praying for this possibility.  Toni, we are also sorry that your daughter is battling cancer.  Agree with you on the power of prayers.  We will pray for her, too.

Martha (Marty) Vass (Townsend)

Toni and all, 

Prayers work miracles and I thank you.  Toni, I am sorry about your daughter.  I will be adding her to my prayer list.  My daughter in law went through that a few years ago and is fine now.  I am praying for Luis also.  

Marty

Glenn Trittenbach

John Schmidt Jr.

I was contacted by a female classmate looking to see if any other female classmate would be interested in sharing a room for the reunion.  If you are interested, select Contact Us on the left side of the website and send me an e-mail through our website and I will provide the classmate name and phone number.

Armando Maldonado

Last Thursday I had lunch with Luis Carrillo.  Although he is frail, he is recovering from his last health issue two months ago.  He is thankful to all who have blessed him with prayer.  His wife Dora says they will be at the reunion. 

Please continue to have Luis in your prayers for a full recovery. 

Thank you all, Mando

Pam Davis (Cotten)

Giant KUDOS to JOHN SCHMIDT, GLENN GONZALEZ and other reunion committee members for the organized and creative planning you've done for your 1966 classmates!!  You have  planned some very impressive events for your upcoming 50th REUNION!  I'm beginning to wonder if I was maybe born 4 years too late! (Although I will add that I too graduated with some terrific classmates in 1962, and I look back fondly on our awesome 50th reunion.)  I'm excited for class of '66 and all the fun you'll have regrouping and remembering!  And I know your classmates will look back with lots of love and gratitude for you and all you've done.   ROCKETS ~ AMIGOS PARA SIEMPRE!!

John Schmidt Jr.

Pam thanks for the wonderful post and kind words for our class of 66.  Glenn and I have already made you an Honorary Member of the class 66.  I know the class of 62 would not be the same if you were not a part of their class.

Pam Davis (Cotten)

OOPS!! In the previous message, I MEANT to say "born 4 years too SOON" !!   See what  old age & senility do to the mind?

Pam Davis (Cotten)

John, I couldn't be any more honored than to be an honorary member of such a terrific group as Irvin Class of '66.  Thank you guys so much for that!

Glenn Gonzalez

Armando Maldonado, thank you for the update on our dear friend Louie Carrillo.  We will continue to pray for Louie's recovery and hope to see him at our reunion.   See you soon.

Glenn Gonzalez

Pam Davis (Cotten), thank you for your kind words about John Schmidt and our reunion committee.  Yes, they are doing a fantastic job.  The sign up list is growing.  We expect a large group of friends.  It will be exciting to see them all.  Thanks also for being an honorary member of our class.  See you soon.

Karen Burke (Pearson)

Armando,

Thank you for the up date on Louie Carrillo.  Louie and I were friends all during high

school.   We had many classes to gether.   He is such a nice, funny and kind person. .  Tell him Karen Burke  sends a message for a speedy recovery.  Glad he is feeling better.  

Karen Burke Daniels Pearson 

Vikki Ivy (McCoy)

Hi everyone!  I'm getting really excited to see those of you who will be attending the class reunion on October 21-23.  One of the things several of us have done in the past is try to do mini-reunions when we travel.  We usually get together for dinner, drinks, or just a nice visit when we can.  With that said, I will be traveling to Placerville, CA October 3 to 9, 2016 for the Golden Retriever Club of America National Dog Show.  Mikah will be showing in the American-Bred class on Thursday the 6th.  However, I will have some days and evenings available to get together if any of you live near there.  You can watch the show with me and spend time hanging out with gorgeous Golden Retrievers.  The only day that I'm not available is on Wednesday the 5th.  I'll be stewarding for the Dog Sweepstakes Judge during that day.   I'm bringing some Alaskan Halibut, Salmon, and Moose meat for a BBQ at the house we're renting on Friday night.  You would be welcome to come to that too.  Let me know if you are available and when.  My cell number is (907) 360-9458.

Mary Yates (McGarr)

I can't imagine that the school is not letting an alumni group have a tour.  Who does that new principal think he/she is, anyway!

If I'm not mistaken, he/she wouldn't have a school where he/she could be the principal if some Irvin alumni members hadn't gone to the EPISD school board meetings to complain about the proposed closure of the school.

Shutting it down was almost a certainty until the alums spoke up.

Miffed,

Mary McGarr

John Schmidt Jr.

Mary, I am not going to get into details right now about Irvin not willing to give us a tour on Saturday.  I have been trying to get a commitment from the admin staff since January.  The school did finally offer a tour on Friday, but we had many other events already schedule.  I am disappointed but the Irvin tour is not the main event of the reunion and we will still have a great reunion. 

Mary Yates (McGarr)

I haven't been on the Irvin tour in a few years, but in the last two years, people have said the school people were giving a good one and that it was worth going.

Here's a link to an article about the new principal and Irvin.  Perhaps she just doesn't want us to see it!

http://m.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_d25abfea-8f15-11e6-8457-d70c7f7cd735.html?mode=jqm 

Mary McGarr

Glenn Trittenbach

John Schmidt Jr.

Guy, I wasn’t going to say a whole lot at this time.  I did not want to cause a distraction to the main reason for having this reunion and that is to have fun and spend time with our classmates.  The process to get the school tour started began early January of this year.  I made several phone calls to the school so that I could talk to either the Principal or an Assistant Principal.  All I ever got was a voice mail box and I left message for someone to call me each time.  I got “NO” response.  I then called the attendance office where I did get to talk to someone.  I explained why I was calling and why I called attendance office and ask that an Assistant Principal give me a call.  Weeks went by and no return called.  At the class of 65 50^th reunion, Ruona Bertaccini had given me a name and a phone number to the Assistant Principal that helped Ruona get the Irvin High School tour.  In February I stared call that Assistant Principal number.  i called at least 4 times and left messages for her to call me, still no return phone calls.  In total I made at least 8 phone calls and no one called me back.  In late February I made a trip to El Paso to sign a contract with the Embassy suites for our reunion.  While in El Paso I made a visit to Irvin High School and was able to meet with the Assistant Principal that helped Ruona.  I did not say anything about all the calls that I made that went unanswered; I just want to schedule the Irvin tour.  I was told that a tour could not be scheduled at this time and that I would have to wait until the new school year starts at the end of August.  I also told the Assistant Principal “I just wanted to make sure that we get the tour on the day that the reunion committee has schedule the reunion so no one else can schedule an event that would prevent us from getting the tour”.  The Assistant Principal wrote down my name and number along with the date that I had requested.  I was told that I would be called shortly after the new school year starts when demands on her slow down.  I waited several weeks after the new school year started and got no phone call.  I started calling and again only got a voice mail box in which I left message.  After three calls and no response I asked a classmate to go to the school and see if she could meet with the Assistant Principal so we could confirm that we will get the tour.  The classmate was unable to meet with the Assistant Principal (was told that she was in a meeting with the Superintendent).  The office personal said that she would give the Assistant Principal the message and that we would get a call within a week.  A week went by with no return call.  I asked the same classmate to make one more trip to the school and this time let them know that the class of 66 was collecting donation for a scholarship and we had a minimum of $600.00 to donate to the school.  The classmate was told and I am keeping it simple; because our reunion was not on homecoming week there would not be anyone at the school on Saturday and that they could not get a volunteer to open the school.  The school said that if we want a tour we would have to do it on a Friday.  We have already planned for Friday events and I turned down the Friday tour.  I am not sure why I wasn’t told this back in February when I told the Assistant Principal the date that we requested for the tour.

K. Gail Browne (Phillips)

 I sent an email to the school and to the EPISD re my displeasure at the tour cancellation. 

There are meetings by the EPISD at 5:30 on Oct 17 at the Irvin Band Room and Oct 20 at the Andress cafeteria.

I can't make the 17th but can do the 20th. If they are asking for a millage I want to discuss poor manners, poor modeling for students, disrespect for alumna and less work by admins  as well as extremely bad manners to the Irvin alumna who incidentally lobbied to keep the school open  I wonder if the same lack of response would have taken place with an offer of new sports equipment and uniforms instead of an academic scholarship  

Gail Browne Phillips

Lila Brisson (Grossinger)

When we planned our School Tour last year for the Class of 70, we went thru the Student Activities Director.

I don't remember he name right now, but she was quite helpful.

John Schmidt Jr.

Lila, the class of 65 used an Assistant Principal for their 50^th reunion school tour.  The last person that we talked to at Irvin was the Student Activities Director.  She was the one that told us that they could only do a school tour during the weekday not on a weekend. If the Student Activities Director is responsible for the school tour, one would have thought that the Assistant Principal would have told me that back in February.

John Schmidt Jr.

Thanks Guy, for assistance and the letter.  I guess we are in the wait and see mode.

Gary McGarr '68

I believe the Student Activities Director was Susan Wiggs.  She always got the National Honor Society to host the tour.

Guy McCool ('65)

Update:

Hi John:

I edited the letter this morning with a few very minor changes.  I worked for a graphics software developer during the '90s.  We developed special effect subprograms that could be invoked from within Adobe Photoshop.  I started creating my own artwork by starting with digital camera images.  I entered a couple of art shows which was fun.  I saved all my digital files...so this morning, I located 10 of what I thought were my best prints and printed them out on 8.5" x 11" paper this morning....and I shipped them to Mary along with the letter (trying to do some "schmoozing" here!).

I had planned to send the letter "next day", but I realized it would probably get to Irvin in the afternoon on a Friday (a very bad time since correspondence tends to lose its effectiveness over the weekend)....so I sent it PRIORITY "flat rate" 2nd day and the postal clerk assured me it would get to Irvin on Monday morning.  Also, showing up in a USPS POSTAL PRIORITY envelope.....makes a much stronger "initial impression" than just receiving an ordinary evelope.

Mary will still have 5 days to possibly get the tour "re-instated".  I believe some other alums have written her also.  Keep your fingers crossed!  We'll see.....

I should have been in the '66 graduating class.  I started grade school in Maryland and the rules stated that a kid had to be 6 years old before they could start 1rst grade in September.  I wasn't going to be 6 until 12/23, (my birthday is 12/23/47) but my Mother was insistent and went to the school board and got some "strings pulled"....so I started 1rst grade @ 5 3/4 years old.  Actually, I didn't like it at all, because I was almost always the smallest boy in my class until I got in the 11th grade @ Irvin High where I started growing a lot more probably due to participation on the Irvin Cross Country and Track teams.

Anyway, even though this isn't "my" reunion and I cannot attend as a guest, I seriously appreciate all of the work you and the other planners have done to make this a fabulous reunion for the class of '66.  I hope everyone has a gr8 time and takes a lot of photos....which can be posted on this site for all the rest of us to see.

Take care,

Guy