Tuesday, November 11, 2008

11 years since graduation...

This past Saturday night I attended the 50th anniversary of my high school which included an all-class reunion. The weekend began with an alumni flag football game on Friday, which I was not able to attend. However, it was apparently very well attended and a great game that I'm sad to have missed out on. Because that event was free, and because many of my fellow classmates were too "cool" to attend the dinner...not nearly as many alumni came to the reunion dinner. But that is okay...as Mr. Vance Nichols mentioned "The ones God wanted to attend were there, and hey....more prizes for all!"

About 40 people attended the dinner event which worked out to almost a prize per person which was pretty good odds. :) Of my former teachers, there were three in attendance - Mrs. Van Dyke, who taught English and now is middle school principal; Miss Brown, who taught Science and now is guidance counselor and oversees curriculum; and Mr. Nichols, who taught TV/Film and now works with the administration. The head of the school Mr. Lewis was also there along with a board member and the elementary school principal. Of the alumni we had a variety of years, including some from 1964, 1977, 1987 and most from the 90's and a couple recent graduates.


Me, Jodi, Rhyen and Angela. I went to school with all three of them - Jodi was a year ahead and Rhyen & Angela were in my class. Rhyen now teaches English, Yearbook and coaches Basketball at RCHS.




The evening began with a meet and greet time and some snacks. They had all the yearbooks out and available to browse through and we all enjoyed (well, maybe enjoyed isn't the word ;) looking at our younger selves. We had time to pray together and opportunities for professional pictures. Mrs. Van Dyke and Miss Brown took the opportunity to have a picture with all their former students in attendance. We then ate some delicious tacos catered by Izzy's Baja Grill located in the Adams Plaza. Dinner was followed by raffle drawing #1 including prizes of 50th anniversary RCS shirts, In & Out, Starbucks and Cheesecake Factory gift cards. I ended up winning a shirt, as did Jodi and Angela won a Starbucks gift card.




Jodi, Keri, Mrs. Van Dyke and Angela. We reminisced with our former English teacher about her trademarked teaching tool - Diagramland with residents like Suzy Subject, Vic Verb, David Direct Object, and others.


After the raffle, we had some fun with a couple games. First was a word scramble which proved to be more challenging than we thought. Then an RCS trivia game which our table scored very poorly on - but could we really be expected to know so many specific sports trivia? :) Even Mr. Lewis managed to miss 3 questions on that quiz...but someone did win a prize. Finally, there was a really fun music game created by one of the current teachers who is also an alumni. 23 snippets of popular music over the past 50 years were played and we called out the answers - much more quickly than Mr. Nichols expected which often made him laugh. Raffle #2 came next and many others became winners at our table - Danny & Jerry each won something along with several other alumni from other tables.




Friends - Jodi, Keri & Angela. We had a much larger group of friends in high school, but many of them were unable to attend due to sickness, distance, or vacations.




We then had the opportunity to choose what kind of cake we wanted from the 6 varieties available - I went for a small slice of both yellow cake/lemon filling and marble cake/chocolate cream filling. Both were delicious. :) We next had an award giveaway. Farthest distance went to Philip who came from New York, Chris who came from Texas and someone else who came from Mission Viejo. There were awards for oldest alumni, most kids, most grandkids, most siblings who attended RCS and a couple others that are included in picture form below.



Jodi won for most school spirit - not only because she was wearing blue, white and gold (our school colors) but also because she cheered so hard at the alumni game, and throughout the reunion dinner event. If anyone knows Jodi then you know she deserves this award! :)






Most classmates in attendance was 1997 - my senior year and equal to 10% of our graduating class! We had 4 alumni - Rhyen, me, Angela and Chris. We all won In & Out gift cards and I got to take home the trophy. :)




The event ended with raffle drawing #3, with many more prizes going out to the remaining alumni. We had closing prayer and more opportunity to chat and say goodbye to our fellow classmates. Though the attendance was small, I am so glad that I took the time and spent the money to attend. It was nice to see the former classmates and teachers that I saw and to hear what they knew about those not able to attend. I look forward to the next opportunity we have to come together to look back at our time at Riverside Christian and remember the fun, the lessons, and the friendships that we may have forgotten.



Best friends then and now - Keri & Angela. :)



2 comments:

Annette B said...

I'm so glad you had such a good time. It seems like whoever organized the event really put thought into making fun and encouraging people to interact and create new memories to go with the old. A

Anonymous said...

Ah, you have satified my curiosity. I was so glad to hear all the details, and I'm so glad you had such a good time!