Need Reunion Help?

Would you like to have a High School Reunion that everyone will remember but don't know where to begin? Well, you've just taken the first step! My name is Patti and I'm here to help. I was chairperson for our 40th reunion in 2008 held at the LB Yacht Club. We had 350 people attend and I've been told it's one to be remembered! I also helped the Wilson Class of '69 this year with their 40th. They had nearly 300 people! I'd like to share with you some of my ideas to help make your reunion the best ever. I'm also a graphic designer for the past 30 some years.

What we did differently than past reunions was #1. The Invitation; #2. The Alumni Book; # 3 The Name Tags; #4 THEN and NOW Photos; and of course, # 5. Located as many grads as possible with the blessed help of a fellow classmate, Jeri Livingstone! We found over 700 people out of our class of 954 and have emails for most of them! Please click on the other links to find out more....

I must point out also how important the venue is. Both '68 & '69 had theirs at the Long Beach Yacht Club. Fabulous place to have it.
Beautiful view, lots of room, great flow to it. Plus we had food stations instead of a boring sit-down dinner. We also made it nice casual wear instead of stuffy cocktail dress. Lots more fun.

You also should use the Wilson Website.. . lots of people know about.. great source for advertising. Take a look...
www.wilsonhighreunion.com then click on 1969
to see the website I put up for them.

#1. The Invitation & Website

The invitation is a 4 page newsletter called the "Bruin Bulletin" - 11 x 17 printed 2 sided in full color and folded twice with an insert of the reservation form and bio form to be mailed back. Of course, our Mascot was the Bruin Bear. Your newsletter would be designed using your Mascot and your school colors. The image above is of the front and back cover only - before it is folded - The mailing label and stamp go on the far left bottom. This is a self mailer. No envelope required. And can be mailed at the normal postal rate. Just weighs 1 ounce! This is something I can put together and print myself since I have a "Kinkos" type set up for my work. We only did the ONE mailing and then the rest of reunion updates were via email. It seemed to have worked since we had twice as many people attend as usual. Your committee only needs to stamp, seal, address and mail them. The info contained in this newsletter can be found on our Wilson website (thru Herb Halling) at:

http://www.wilsonhighreunion.com/1969/

then click on Class of 1969 Web Site
to see these items included in the Newsletter:
A Message From the Committee
Pre Party Happenings!
Let's Party!
Lodging
Meet Your Committee
40th Reunion Attendance List
Alumni Book
Promote Your Business!
Missing Grads

( "In Memory of... is not included in the Bulletin/Invite. But is in the Alumni Book along with their photo.) I merely copied our '68 Bulletin and made the needed changes for their '69 reunion. I also maintain their website which is also based on our '68 website... updating the Attendance, Missing and In Memory Of pages.

#2. Alumni Book

A “Must Have” for either a 40th, 50th or even a 60th High School Reunion! Our class said they will cherish it forever. This is no ordinary Alumni Book. It’s 8 1/2 x 11”, black and white, (Cover is in full color) and nearly 1” thick! Ours was 200 pages! Considered more like a coffee table book, with "Then and Now" pages featuring current photographs - as well as senior year pics - and up-to-date biographies of your grads, including a classmate directory. It makes for fascinating reading...even if you don't know the people! Also included in ours was the entire sheet music of "Wilsonia" - our school song. One does not need to attend the reunion to receive this keepsake. It even comes with a CD of full color photos from the pre-night and main evening event! (These were photos taken from volunteers from our class).

Each participant gets one half page to write their "bio" of Then and Now. What's great is that the grads send in their own recent photo - of themselves or with their families... This does away with the hired expense of a professional photographer and the boring waiting line when one first arrives at the reunion. It also helps the Alumni Book get mailed out sooner. Ours was mailed out 2 months after the reunion!

You really need someone that is good on the computer and can scan in their high school senior photos for the "Then" photo and use their recent photo for the "Now" and layout all of the bio information from what they email or slow mail to you. There is also a directory listing and the collage of the main evening and a "In Memory Of" photo page.

Here's a generic sample of how a bio would look.



Here is a sample of the "In Memory Of" page included in the Alumni Book. You can also make an enlarged poster of this for your reunion night.

#3. Name Tags

We based our 40th reunion around what Junior High you attended. What this did was to provide those people who felt like they didn't know anyone once they entered the huge Wilson Campus to find those people that they would remember - from their Junior High school more easily. Our name tags were color coded per what high school you went to. Large and very readable. This meant that if you saw someone across the way with the same color badge (like Red for Rogers) then most likely you would know them. Didn't we know mostly everyone back then?! This does away with the awkwardness of going up to someone, staring at their name tag and saying "Oh, I thought I knew you... guess not!"
Since I would have all of the high school senior pics scanned in for their bios, I will also make up all of the name tags for you on Avery peel off labels.

Here is a sample of a name tag:



We also had 4 x 6 foam core boards for the 4 main junior high schools attended with photos from that time period. This gave another place for those who didn't know too many people at Wilson to congregate.) However, these would be made up by your committee.

#4. THEN & NOW Photos

The THEN & NOW pages are of those ATTENDING the reunion. They were compiled from the photos sent in by classmates for their bios and their Senior High School photo. I sent these 8 1/2" x 11" pages out via email just before the reunion for 2 reasons...
One, to soften the shock when people walk into the reunion and think "Who are all these old people!?" And two, to generate more interest in attending the reunion. Some people think they wouldn't know very many people but once they look at who is attending they say "Oh, I remember them!" Very effective and helpful in recognizing people at the reunion.

#5. Locating Classmates

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to find as
many people as possible for a successful reunion.
Jeri Livingstone, from class of '63, volunteers many, many hours in search of classmates. All you need to do is provide a list of all your grads with any information that you might already have - preferably via email. The sooner this is started the better.
You can reach her at:
jandktoo@socal.rr.com

Pricing

For the Bruin Bulletin and invite, I can set that up and print it for $2.00 each.

For the Alumni Book, I have a great place locally, (Signal Hill) that can print and bind the Alumni book for roughly $9 a book based on 100 pages printed 2 sided. The mailing is thru Media Mail about $2.77 each.

Please feel free to email me with any questions that you might have.
Enjoy!

:o)
Patti

Email: patti@reunionkeepsakes.com

Testimonials

Here are just a few of remarks from people that didn't attend the reunion but received the book...

"I just received my reunion book with CD, and I spent about 2 hours going through all of it. I have to tell you that the job you did on this book is INCREDIBLE! I am so sorry that I wasn't able to make it to the reunion, but after reading all this and seeing the photos (I admit I couldn't get through them all because my computer crashed!) I really feel as though I was there. Seeing all the photos made me get a little teary -- we were an exceptional class in an exceptional year in history. I wanted to express again all my appreciation for the work you and the committee did to make this possible, both for those who came and for those of us who could not. This book will be a permanent keepsake of mine." - Gail Hollenbeck

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"What a fantastic job you did on the reunion book! I got home very late tonight; eager to get to sleep, as I have a very busy day tomorrow starting at 6:30am. Before heading for bed, I took a quick moment to look through my mail and was pleased to find the reunion book. Once I opened it, I couldn't put it down. The hell with tomorrow! For the past two hours, I've been standing in my kitchen flipping pages and reliving so many old memories. Thank you for all your effort. Now, I'm too wired to go to bed. I can sleep tomorrow night!" - Rick Wilcoxon

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" ... What a thrill it was to get it this afternoon!!! What great pictures and can’t wait to see the dvd asap. You really did a stellar job putting this together, and to get it out in just a couple of months is the 8th wonder of the world! Needless to say what a great accomplishment of awesome organizational skills! Thank you so much, even though it was impossible for me to attend it this time, I can really feel the spirit of this incredible event, and am so thrilled that so many of you were so blessed to attend it!!! That is an imprinted memory y’all will treasure forever in your heart." - Debra Smith