Here’s the latest update from Bennie:
T-Minus Two Months And Counting!
That’s right, we have little more than 60 days until the big event and it’s time you got another update on the process of putting this thing together. You would really think that something like this would be a walk in the park with very little worry, a piece-of-cake kind of thing. But as George Carlin so aptly said on his historic AM/FM album that came out when we were in school, “Oh contraire mon fraire!”
Best laid plans and good intentions aside, we’ve had to scramble here over the past couple of weeks.
Our Saturday Dinner/Dance location became a no-go when we discovered they would not finish construction in time to host our event. We had to scramble to find a new place to host our shin-dig which is not an easy task.
Nancy did a bang-up job of coming up with a new list of possibilities and the committee took a couple of field trips to scope-out new digs.
We came up with a new venue that is right in the same neighborhood as our previous location and is going to be a great spot for us. We are now going to be tripping the light fantastic at the Club House in the Palm Aire Country Club off of University Parkway. We’ve got new info and directions on the web site that you can check out.
On an entirely different front… Sitting around the old planning table way back when, we thought a golf outing would be a great idea for those who so indulge. Seems that we don’t have that many that swing the old clubs or at least enough who wanted to commit, so we have had to cancel out Saturday golf outing for lack of sign-ups. We needed 32 people to sign-up by this time but we only had 4.
Now don’t let this dissuade you from committing to our other events. We are having great interest and response to our traditional events. We are currently on track to surpass 150 folks and should come in somewhere in the 200 range.
But here in lies the historical problem with reunions, a lot of people don’t commit that early on. We are getting ticket orders in almost every day, but in reunions past, a great number of people waited until the last minute before ordering their tickets. Our new Dinner/Dance venue has a maximum capacity of around 220 people and there is a good chance right now if you don’t order tickets for that event now, you just might become the proverbial “Wall Flower” and be shut-out of the big dance! To get a feel for what you might be missing, we’ve got a clip of music from the band on the web site www.rhsspiritof76.com that you can listen to. It’s on the home page at the bottom, just scroll down and click on the Music button.
Our Friday venue, Mote Marine can hold the whole darn graduating class so there’s no chance in getting shut-out there, but you better get on board quick if you want to get in on ALL of the fun.
A lot of you either got a message on your answering machine or actually talked to a committee member as we did a phone blitz earlier this week to get you to give us an RSVP as to whether or not you were or were not coming. Again, you don’t have to buy your tickets right now but if you could log on to the web site and give us an RSVP as to wether or not you are coming it would help us immensely.
There has been a lot of work done already by Nancy, Melody, Sue, Aimee, and Bennie but we are coming up on the time that will require a good many extra hands for a wide variety of tasks that will be required to pull this whole thing off. So the calls will be going out soon for volunteers to greet people, man registration tables, blow-up balloons, stick some frills in center-pieces and other such thankless jobs that really make for great events! If you just can’t live without being a part of it all, then contact Nancy Tatum by sending her an email through her Classmates Listing on the web site. She will be more than happy to put you to work for a great cause!
One more thing before signing off (while the Bee Gees “You Should Be Dancing” is playing on I-Tunes to keep me fired-up)…
We want to make this weekend a real treat for those who want to participate. We have tried to keep ticket prices low enough to allow as many people as possible to attend while still providing for great venues and entertainment. But the fact of the matter is that if we had to rely on ticket prices alone, we could not produce the type of weekend we have planned. Costs have gone up incredibly over the years for these kind of events, and our reunion would just not be the same without the extra monetary contributions we are receiving from some of you. We want to again thank those that have contributed extra to help the cause and again send out the request that if you or your company has the means to give a little extra to help us out, we would greatly appreciate the gesture.
You can contribute online on the website or you can send a check to the same mailing address as you would your ticket orders.
We will be back in touch at about 30 days out with more updates and until then you are all charged with one supreme duty…
Spread the word to all you know, the time is coming for a great reunion weekend and we don’t want to miss anyone who would like to attend. So take a look at the Classmates Section on the website and if you see someone who dose not have any info next to there picture and you know how to get in touch with them…Do IT! Get them to sign on to the site and get registered!
Until next time…
Bennie Barton
Representing A Tireless Reunion Committee!