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Where do I begin to thank such wonderful people? First, organizing our 20th Reunion brought me great joy! It was far too long a time span between reunions, and I'm very happy with our results. We had (give or take a couple) 183 people attending our reunion, with 133 classmates & 50 guests. Thanks to all of you for attending and making this such a great success. To all of you who took the time out of your busy schedule to complete your Now & Then pages -- I Thank You. The book wouldn't have existed without you & I was so excited to have over 100 classmates participate, making our first Now & Then book a success!!! And my thanks to everyone for my beautiful gifts. The pearl earrings & bracelet mean a great deal to me, and they were a wonderful surprise and a thoughtful touch that I suspect Joan Westcott Gile was behind. THANK YOU ALL! Wonderful People -- Awesome Weather -- Good Food -- Great Venue... How could we lose with that combo? |
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Special Thanks I'd like to express to Your Reunion Committee: Our meetings were great, and their help, friendship and encouragement helped to keep things going: Joan Westcott Gile worked hard to search for people and she was greatly successful. She arranged the Boxborough Holiday Inn accommodations and did a fabulous job on the centerpieces, even figuring a way to make them work without the "koosie." I'm so glad she joined the committee -- it was wonderful getting to know her again, and we're better friends than ever. We had a great time keeping the guys in line & when she came early to set-up for the reunion with the mimosa ready to go... IT WAS AWESOME!!! Bill Fenniman did everything he could to help locate people; his access to many public records was key. And this guy knows how to have fun: he hosted a lobster bake for the committee, and we got nothing done and had a blast! Sweeeetheart! Jim Dudziak somehow came up with MANY of the missing women. This was a great help: the women are harder to find with all the name changes. During the week before the reunion, when I was stressing, Jim came up to Winchendon to help with the Now & Then Book assembly crunch. THANKS! Ken Frank -- the first person I called; not sure why -- I just remembered him as such a great friend! Ken got the ball rolling by recruiting other committee members & provided a place for our early meetings at Gallant Insurance I can't forget the awesome job he did managing the raffle: a $300 profit for the next reunion: Way to Go Ken!!! Wayne Clark & Mike Sweeney - (man, we're still grouping you two together...) They both found many missing people: Mike searched the registry & Wayne collected a lot of addresses. As always, they kept the laughs going too. Loved the Napa hat guys: hadn't had that pleasure before! (Sorry for that splash Joan!) John Flannery found missing classmates & provided his home for meetings also. Of course I was always the last to leave: John & his wife Vicki were very tolerant of me, and we had fun. One time I stayed with Vicki while John had another engagement & I was still there hours later when he got home. I really enjoyed her company. Timothy Whelan - We are so fortunate to have the best '78 site on the web. It is an awesome tool & I know many of us have enjoyed it. It created excitement and promoted the event, and led to many private reunions among the class. Tim & Firefly are going to maintain it for the next reunion event. More & more classmates will enjoy it in the future & the next time around our work will be MUCH easier. Thanks again Tim for your design, programming, editing, and the database! We all wish you lived closer & could have enjoyed the meetings too... we'll have to work on that! Thanks also to Aimee Goldman O'Rourke and Sandy Macaulay Campbell for taking some of the burden off Firefly by vetting the lists and editing comments, respectively. Can't forget our Balloon Committee: Jim, Ken, John & Mike Gile. You should have seen Jim's face when I met him at the florist on the day of the reunion to see how it was going. He said, "I thought these were going to be all blown-up already." I replied, "Sorry -- that's why we needed the four of you to take care of this! Thanks!" Free of that job, I picked up the cake was able to return to the site and enjoy another mimosa with Joan. The truck was quite a site as it pulled up to the pavilion with the "Balloon Men" in the back: AWESOME! (I wish I had paid more attention in English class -- I'm running out of good adjectives!) Thanks so much to all of you! -- Hey! When's the next meeting? More characters to thank: Mike Gile (Joan Westcott's husband) - I don't know how I would have been able to enjoy the day without his efficient, patient, consistent coverage of the reception table. You are awesome! He even packed up & loaded my car -- Joan! -- whatta man! Thank you so much! Colleen McDonald O'Claire - Thanks with your help with set up & your coverage on the reception table as well. Between Colleen, Joan and Mike, I didn't have to worry about a thing. Dorry Richter - Thank you for lending your expertise for the group photo. I'm sure we're all excited about seeing that shot! Thank you Alison Preston Conlon, for inspiring the project & having the confidence in me to help make this happen. I love my watercolor of Acton Center you gave me. Acton was a wonderful place to grow up & I'll treasure it always. Frank from the Rod 'N Gun club & Ted from the Sit 'N Bull Pub: nice job! Everything went very smoothly. They just wanted us all to be happy. SUCCESS!! If I've forgotten anyone - be assured it was unintentional, and speak up because everyone's help was vital! Many of you offered your services & we also appreciate that. As you can see, it takes many hands to pull off a reunion as good as ours. Congratulations to Jim Dudziak on the winning of the 101 disc Pioneer CD player -- we're all very happy for you -- it couldn't have gone to a nicer guy. Another measure of our success remains to be seen: that we never let 10 years go by again. Stay in touch. With the help of the website, I think that's a sure bet. Thanks for coming -- I had a blast! It was wonderful to see you all there. I only wish the time didn't go by so quickly. For those of you who couldn't make it -- we missed you and hope to see you next time. Sincerely, Return to 20th Reunion |
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© 1998. Maryann Morse |
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