| I don't know where to begin! It all feels like a dream that I've woken up from with a big smile on my face! It was an unbelieveable time and one I'll remember forever! The one single word that comes to mind is...surreal. Recently, I read a quote....."Life is not about the amount of breaths we take but the moments that take your breath away." Reunion 2005 week-end did that for me and many of you who shared in it. Seeing everyone embrace each other with warm smiles, hugs and hand shakes was remarkable. Those that hardly exchanged a word in high school were now on an equal playing field, laughing and exchanging stories, dancing. It started on Friday night at the old school. What a feeling to walk back inside, leaning on the wall of the cafeteria brought back memories from high school. I think we all took at least one moment to take it all in so the memory would be forever burnt in our minds. The band was great! Andy Blincoe and band "Thick as Thieves" rocked us for hours. Danny Dufour got up with "Thick as Thieves" and played some kick ass guitar! Tracy Barber got up to lend some vocals and I was on tambourine! Loads of fun! Our M.C, Jed Richman was in fine form to open it up and Mr. Torjusen kicked us off with an opening speech. He looks just great and has just retired. We were all so proud to have him join us and a wonderful way to exit from the education profession to have 140 people on hand to wish him well.. We mingled, danced and drank and presented our survey award winners: Favorite Teacher - Ron Patterson Best Athlete - Derek Robinson Funniest Student - David Mason Most Involved Student - Fred Carter Student who skippped the Most - Carol Dobbs Most Missed - Roxanne Ebenol First two people to buy tickets - Gordan Day and Robin Rock were refunded their ticket money Saturday night at Lasalle Legion - we all came out looking pretty darn good! Jed Richman arrived in style as the winner of our limo draw. We heard some wonderful speeches from Ron Patterson, Tom Booth and Fred Carter. Outside to pose for our group shot was another beautiful feeling! We stood with our Reunion Banner which was signed by all who attended throughout the night. It proudly hangs in my basement family room and I still find myself reading what everyone wrote! The slideshow that Fred Carter put on for us was just a "Blast from the Past"...hoots, hollers and clapping rang out in the room as our (young!) faces from 1980 came up on the screen. Excellent job Fred and thanks for the memories. We're lucky to have had Fred and his camera over these years....Ron Patterson and Fred Carter have kept these photos for a very long time and thankfully were able to share them with us. You'll find the link to Fred's Reunion Photos on the Homepage of this website. He has also posted over 1000 various high school photos there as well, some we seen in his slideshow. Follow the link and check them out! We raised almost $300.00 for Tammy Coleman's walk for breast cancer..thanks to everyone who bought tickets. We wish Tammy all the best on her walk in a few weeks. Congratulations to our half and half winner, Ron Mackenzie. We danced the night away to classic disco songs from 1975 -1980 and I must admit to being a bit surprised to see the men in the room up on the dance floor....If I remember right, back in 1980, they were all wall flowers! LOL I'm sure we all walked away with at least one special moment from the reunion and mine was standing with my 22 buddies from Bronx Park School (except for Lori Dawn Robinson who missed it!!!) whom I have known for almost 37 years. I was proud to stand with them again and even prouder that our friendships have stood the test of time. They are the best group of people I know. The picnic on Sunday was a casual sit in the park with our families...talking about the fun we've had and figuring out when we will see each other again. Soon, I hope! There was talk of mini reunions, perhaps one a year, "just girls" get-togethers and mini reunions in several cities. I have created a new page, "Annoucements" which I would be happy to pass along dates of events, mini reunions, news and updates. Just drop me a line and I'll post it. Thanks to many of you for your kind words and emails to myself and the committee expressing your congratulations on the reunion. I'm sure I can speak on behalf of everyone that it was a pleasure to bring us all together. A few days after the reunion, emails were pouring in about a 30th Reunion in 2010. Frankly, I was frightened at the thought of it but, they keep coming in so it looks like it could be done again if the demand it there to put it on. Because of the possibility of another reunion 5 years down the road, I've decided to keep this website up and running. I don't want to lose the contact and I'd like to keep a place open for you to return to, no matter where the next 5 years take you. If you change email addresses, please drop a line and let me know. If you don't want it on the web, it's fine, I'll keep it for my own records. Feel free to send me an email about your favourite memories of the reunion...it would be fun to post and share them here on the website. The email addresses are now posted for all of you to touch base and keep in touch. Let me know if there are any changes, additions, typos. Thats it for now...take care and keep in touch! Kelly Stevens [email protected] |
| LaSalle High School "Class of 1980" Reunion July 1-3, 2005 |
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