Hesperia High School
Class Of 1980

45th Class Reunion - 2025

Hesperia Class of 1980 Reunion

On a hot and humid Saturday, July 26, 2025, 55 people gathered at Hesperia’s Weaver Park Kitchen & Hall to celebrate 45 years post-graduation of its largest class ever to graduate – 1980’s class of 105 students – classmates, spouses, friends, and former teachers.

Not controllable was the SWEATY weather, the village water main break (water ban - had to buy it all), emergency vehicles racing to a nearby fire (David Allen Racing Motorsports), and getting phone alerts of the Traverse City MI Wal-Mart stabbings.

Planned months in advance, classmates were alerted by a Facebook event, class web page notifications, snail mail to those off the social media grid, and word of mouth, specifically Arlene Anderson Kolbe, the class historian, who helps run a downtown shop, Fanna’s Mercantile, and sees all the locals.

With an ambitious planning committee who wanted to maximize the attendee experience, included were: a photo booth with camera man Shawn Teegardin, catered food by local BBQ expert, Teep Spaulding, Sandy Witham Mitteer’s donated pies, Rhonda Davenport Johnson’s memorabilia display, Joni Smith Gerard’s "in memory" table of those passed away, Anna Walthers Wawra’s  play list of 70/80s music, and Shari Johnson Konkel’s 30-minute "Then and Now" video set to popular songs from the time of all the classmates and their families. The video is now available on YouTube for those who could not attend.

Besides 2020 when Michigan was shut down with the pandemic, the class had only missed one other reunion, and is justifiably proud of how connected they have remained over the years.

note: Teachers who attended were Gordon Van Duinen (5th grade); Mrs. Carol (Godfrey) Kochans, and Dave & Jan Chye. We also heard from several others, including Jane Gruber Church (who now lives in the U. P.), Kathy VanderKolk, Dawn Tarr, Bob Henry, Marie Bischoff, but they could not attend.