The Reunion Project - Showtime! (6/28)
By Scott Ryan
Eighteen months of planning went into this weekend, and it was worth it. One of our classmates was the general manager of a new restaurant down by the beach and he offered us some room Friday night for what we thought would be about 50 or so classmates. Boy were we surprised.
An estimated 125 people jammed the joint for five hours. I saw people I hadn't seen in 25 years, as did many others. People came out of the woodwork for this--many of whom said they weren't sure they'd even be there. We kept a donation can by the door for those who wanted to contribute and we sold some small commemorative items too.
We even had a few friends from other schools show up! It was unbelievable. We were glad to see it be a success--I think we raised over $400 towards our reunion effort.
Everyone gave us rave reviews. When that party wound down, die-hards traveled to another location across the street and talked until 1:30 a.m. Not satisfied with that, some laughed and swapped stories until sunrise.
With one successful night in the books, we knew we still had some ground to cover before we broke even on the event. And we wondered if we could re-create the magic a second night in an entirely different setting.
*About this blog: Scott is a 1988 graduate of Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach, Va. and is blogging about his experience planning his 25th high school reunion, which was June 28-29, 2013. You can contact Scott at 248-945-9950 or at sryan@cbs.com. Please put "The Reunion Project" in the subject line. Visit his class website here
