On Friday night, August 27th, at the Oklahoma History Center 136 classmates, spouses, significant others, volunteers and friends gathered to rekindle old friendships and make new ones, not to mention eat, drink and dance.
Saturday night, August 28th, 128 of us, many of whom were survivors of Friday night, met at the Clarion Hotel Convention Center to continue the meeting of friends and be subjected to an entertainment program that may never be equalled. The Awards ceremony, especially, was a solemn, dignified affair; in fact, many recipients declined to accept for fear of breaking the spell.
Thanks go to Joan Kern Ackley for a beautiful song and the authorship of the Awards, Alan Atkins for emceeing them, Vince Hinson for his poem, Norma Meriwether Newton for her memorable prose offering, and Sonda Clark Mythen for her touching reunion story. Jeanne Allen Prince channeled Patsy Cline on Friday night, and divested herself of a lot of "little things."
A big thanks goes out to the staffs of the Clarion and the History Center for making our events run smoothly. Thanks go, too, to our great DJ's: Former KOMA'er Rick Ayers on Friday (check out his new venture edmondradio.com), and on Saturday Pat Clarke of KOMA, KMGL, and KRXO. Glad he could work us in.
I can't say enough about the hard work the Reunion Committee put into this; it was one of those experiences that makes everyone fast friends forever. Saying thanks doesn't seem like enough. But the big pat on the back goes to Committee Chair Jeanne Allen Prince for bringing all of it together and making it so fun and memorable. The decorations were the perfect touch; they were the product of a great effort by Kathie Gullo Loffi with a lot of help from Fran Smith, Kathy Hamm Blackwell, Tom Beadles and numerous others.
We raised over $400 toward the purchase of a new auditorium chair through the Friends of Northwest Classen Foundation. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
Everyone had a great time, and we have photographic evidence... The pictures are here. The professional pics from Motophoto are here (hit the "Show All" link in the middle column and find the three Northwest Classen groups). If you have some pictures from the reunion, send them to chris@nwc70.com, and I'll post them here.
Next time, don't miss it!
-Chris Heldenbrand, webmaster
PS - We will be keeping this website going until the next reunion and beyond. It will be a great tool to keep up with each other and communicate family news and events. If you haven't sent in a biographical sketch, please do (click on the "Classmates" button on the left, then "Biographies" when the new page comes up here). We would love to know what you're doing, so continue to send in items of interest, pictures, etc.