50 YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION April 23rd - 24th 2010
"Time flies when you are having fun."
Dear Classmate,
We are all familiar with that quotable quip. Time really does fly when you are having fun - in fact it's one of the defining aspects of fun. There is a variation of that idiom which I find increasingly appropriate - "Time flies when you are growing older". Look what just sneaked up on us - our 50th year Takoma Academy Class Reunion. Hopefully, you recently received a postcard from me alerting you to the upcoming reunion weekend and requesting that you reserve the weekend of TA Alumni weekend of April 23 - 25, 2010 to celebrate our 50th Year Takoma Academy Class Reunion.
Over the last couple of months, Rhonda Meyer Visser, Karen Schneider and I have been working on updating the class list and making some preliminary plans for the weekend. We are pleased that we have been able to make favorable arrangements with the Crowne Plaza Washington DC/Silver Spring Hotel to serve as our headquarters hotel. This will simplify local travel requirements for those of you who are coming in from out of town. It will also allow us the maximum time for the "Best Class Ever to Graduate from T.A." to be together to celebrate our 50th Year Reunion. We have also made arrangements for a discount group rate for hotel accommodations. The Crowne Plaza Hotel is located at 8777 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910. Our discount room rate is $99.00 plus tax per night. In making reservations please reference Group Code "TAR". You may make reservations online at www.crowneplaza.com/dcsilverspring or www.cpdcsilverspring.com. Don't forget to reference the Group Code. If you should want to arrive before Friday, April 23rd or stay beyond Sunday, April 25th please ask for the special rate to be extended.
Our Class social events will be taking place at the hotel. On Friday evening your class president and his wife will host a class welcoming reception in the Seneca Room between 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. This will be a casual event without any planned program except to enjoy each others company. Light refreshments will be served and families are welcome. Saturday evening we will share a wonderful dinner together followed by a full course of socializing. There will be a selection of meat and vegetarian entrees to enjoy between salads and DESSERTS. This will take place in the Grant I and II rooms beginning at 7:00 p.m. The cost will be $50.00 per person. We have with ample space to display family and then-and-now pictures and memorabilia which we encourage you to bring and share.
Of course there will be weekend activities at TA. Not formal Friday evening program is scheduled but the school will be open for registration an opportunity to meet other alumni. There will be a combined Sabbath School and Worship Service in the J.P. Laurence Auditorium on Saturday Morning followed immediately by the alumni potluck lunch in the TA Student Center Cafeteria. As with our 25th and 30th years reunion, our class has been called upon to lead out in that program and I am please that Marc Beaven has agreed to present the lesson study and that Clarence Schilt has agreed to be the keynote speaker. Do we have any music volunteers? Dress your best for the Class picture immediately following the morning service.
Don't forget to bring your class memorabilia and photographs. Now is the time to start digging through your attic to find these priceless items. If any of you have snapshots, slides, movies, tapes, DVDs,etc., call Rhonda Meyer Visser at (301)595-5757 or email her at r09w25visser@yahoo.com (don't even try to figure that one out). If possible, send copies or originals to Rhonda, or, if that is not possible, bring them with you that weekend. We would like to include current pictures (classmates and families) as well. If, in the unlikely event someone is not able to be with us for the reunion, we would still like you to send pictures. We plan to have display areas and a projection equipment available for our collective entertainment and/or embarrassment.We are also planning to prepare a class book ahead of time to distribute that weekend. Karen Schneider (301-622-5445 and kes.rn60@yahoo.com) and Gail Price (937-299-6765) have agreed to coordinate its preparation. If you did not contribute to previous class books, please give us a page or two about you and your family, your education and career highlights, your areas of interests and activities, business and pleasure travels, memories to share, hindsight advise, plans for the future and good ole fashion gossip about other member of the class. If you previously contributed, please give us a page or two updating your earlier information. Please get this to Gail or Karen as soon as possible so that the book will be available for distribution on Saturday evening.
I am enclosing a copy of the updated class list which I hope each of you will check and verify, correct or add to the information that we have (or do not have) and call, write or email me with corrections, deletions and additions as soon as possible. We do not know everyone's whereabouts so if you have more current information please contact me right away. My email address is gculpepper@gculpepperlaw.com. We are inviting not only the members of the class who actually walked down the aisle in 1960 with us but those classmates who were just as much a part of our class in all other respects.
I am asking you email me the information requested below or complete the last page of this letter and return it to me as soon as possible. Please do not forget to include your full name, address, telephone numbers and email address. We need this information right away so that we can confirm plans and estimate numbers.
It has been suggested that we should plan a Sunday morning brunch. I would appreciate some input from all of you in that regard. If a sufficient number are going to remain this area for Sunday and are interested in such a plan, please note your interest on your response.
Hoping to see each of you in April, I am
Very truly yours,
Glenn E. Culpepper