Reunion planning begins: Proposed dates

This is a copy of an e-mail that Debbie (Reece) May sent to ’79ers that she had e-mail addresses for. It’s posted here in hopes of reaching a larger audience.

 

Hello 79ers,

Our 30th is coming up next summer and I want to get the ball rolling for a reunion. I happen to be going to the States next summer so I’m hopeful that I will finally be able to attend a reunion. We live in Higashi-Kurume, but recently we were in Singapore and were able to be with Dan & Jeanne Sims. I’ve talked Dan and a few others recently and I’ve come up with two possible venues so far. If you would be at all interested in hosting a reunion, please respond. Then I will send out a survey and see which place gets the most votes.   Here are two possible reunion sites for your consideration.

1.  Chicago from July 17 – 19 or July 31 – August 2.   Virginia Travis lives in Chicago right now until July 2009. She is willing to assist in planning but would want at least another person to help host it. One possible venue would be Wheaton College. Other places in Chicago would have to be looked into.

2.  Los Angeles from July 10-12 or July 17-19.   Kathy (Buss) Johnston and her husband Matt are willing to host it. They’ve already looked into facilities and costs of staying at Biola University and renting rooms. Staying overnite with three meals is only $38 for a double occupancy room. Rental of rooms vary according to what kind of room we would want. The cafeteria has good food and the newer dorms are very nice. Kathy mentioned that they have a small house but it would be possible to do a barbecue in their yard. The Biola pool is available. And of course there is always the beach, Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, and all kinds of entertainment in that area.

Please consider whether you would like to host a reunion in your area. The class of ’78 just had their reunion at Carmel at Dave Gizzi’s house. Most people stayed in motels in the area and rented cars together, taking excursions in the area.   

As far as dates are concerned, it seems that a Friday to a Sunday is preferable. Avoiding the 4th of July weekend is probably a good idea. I chose the dates above because they fit MY schedule best. I selfishly want to be able to attend!

I recently got on facebook and have found a few CAJers. Dan Sims and Becky Bartmas are “my friends.” Please consider getting on so that we can keep in contact with each other this year before our reunion. I think that connecting before the reunion will make our time together more meaningful. I just got off the phone with Mary Harimoto. She lives in Tachikawa but she would like to try to make it to the reunion.   

Please write back and give me your thoughts. And if you could look at the address list to see if you know of others in our class, please let me know. Looking forward to seeing many of you next year!

Debbie (Reece) May  

So, what do you think? Do you have any ideas or suggestions? Please post your feedback using the comments feature of this site.

Welcome to the CAJ Class of 1979 website!

Hi! This is Paul Dupree. I’m glad you found this website.

Yesterday I had lunch with Steve Hersey. He is in the states for a short visit and will be returning to Haiti where he lives with his wife and two children. Believe it or not, he’s a school principle, now. Anyway, Steve and I talked about mutual friends and family members and shared memories of growing up in Japan and going to school at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ — I know that YOU know what CAJ is, but by spelling it out it will help Google properly index this post so that it will pop up on Google searches and if anyone is using Google alerts for that name it will show up there, too).

Before Steve and I ended our lunch we discussed the need to begin planning now for the 30th class reunion that will (or should) take place next summer – 2009. I suggested that it would be easy to set up a website (this website) so that we could have a presence on the Internet and make it easier to keep everyone updated on the plans as well as keep in touch with class members who can’t make the trip to whereever the reunion ends up being. 

So, here it is. If you are a member of the C.A.J. class of ’79, then this website is for you. And, if you are a CAJ graduate that just stumbled across this website, feel free to visit and post comments to let us know you stopped by. Also, if any of the reunion organizers want to have administrative rights to this website so they can post things to it, just create a free account at wordpress.com and then let me know your account name and I’ll add it to the list of site administrators. Of course, you do not need to be an administrator to post comments. Anyone can post a comment without logging in or having an account. But, if you want to help shape this website and post new stories, then I can make you an administrator.