high school reunion!

I recently attended my 40th high school reunion in Lethbridge, Alberta, and I don’t mind saying that it was an absolutely fantastic weekend! I feel almost uncomfortable saying how fantastic it was, because I was on the organizing committee. I worked as one of a group of 5 dedicated volunteers for the last 20 months to make it happen. Yes, you heard me correctly – 20 months. The funniest thing about that is that I did not enjoy high school – not one little bit! My logic in getting involved was that the people attending would be my friends from elementary school and junior high. Those are the people I wanted to see. I have very vague memories of high school. I wasn’t the best student, and let’s just say attendance wasn’t high on my priority list. (I think I made up for that by attending nearly every meeting of our reunion committee, and we had quite a few.)

Let me share a few highlights. We started the week-end off with a “meet and greet” reception at the Galt Museum. The museum was originally a hospital, later a school of nursing, the home of the Lethbridge Health Unit, and finally a museum. This fine old building had a modern addition added to the back, with large expanses of glass making the view of the surrounding hills almost a part of the space. It is just beautiful. These photos show those views plus the stunning sunset that I arranged for the first night of the reunion. What can I say? I’m a detail person.

The reception was scheduled from 7 p.m. till midnight. Several people arrived before 7 – terribly anxious for the fun to begin I think. And who knew those old people could have so much to talk about? What a wonderful evening of chatting, laughing and catching up. We eventually had to clear people out so that the caterers could go home! The next morning there were several activities available, including golf, a nature walk or a power walk around a lake. In the afternoon we arranged a tour of our high school and a bus tour of the “old haunts”, both of which were a lot of fun. A tour would not be complete without a visit to the local Dairy Queen.

Note the tacky snacks from the 70’s – jujubes and cheesies. (There were also a great deal of delicious appetizers provided by our caterer – enough that you didn’t need to eat dinner elsewhere.) Also note the incredibly clever candle holders that I spent hours putting together. They were not my original idea, but I photo-copied all the year book photos, cut them to fit and finished it all off with ribbon. I thought they looked great.

There was a little time to rest and get gorgeous before the banquet started.  We had a superb evening with a delicious beef tenderloin dinner and crème brûlée. We listened to music from the 60’s and 70’s and danced the night away. For the second night of our event we also had to push people out the door – at 1:30 in the morning! It was so great to connect with old friends and find out what everyone has done for the past 40 years. It was worth every minute that went into the planning and execution of this event because I’m pretty sure everyone there had fun. My thanks go out to everyone who attended for contributing to the experience!