One last post before we close up shop here for ten more years.

A few months ago, I sent in all the slides from our senior assembly to be scanned and digitized. It ended up taking a little longer than expected and it wasn’t ready for the reunion. However, it’s here now and they’re real fun to look at.

There are 135 photos total. I’ve put them all in a zip folder that can be downloaded here. (It’s a fairly large file, so get it started and go grab yourself a snack or something.)

I’ll leave that up here for a few weeks and then we’ll shut down shop and check back in a decade.

On a personal note, I was really impressed to see all the support that was given for Amy’s raffle. Thanks to everyone for stepping up like you did.

Many have asked how they can see and share photos of the evening. For anyone willing to share their photos, you can use the upload buttons below or send them directly to me at admin@1998spartans.com. We’d love to see them.

If we get enough photos, I’ll make one final post so everyone can view the festivities.

Use these buttons to upload from your computer:

Many have asked questions so here are the answers. I’ll split them between the Reunion and the park day.

Reunion Info:

• Please arrive at 6:00PM so there is plenty of time to get checked in and to check out the raffle. (The raffle prizes are awesome.) Dinner will then be served at 6:30. It’s an Italian dinner with both beef and chicken available.
• The attire is “dressy casual.” I guess you can wear your letterman’s jacket if you want to.
• We’ll have a DJ for mood music, and a dance floor for after dinner.
• I’m sure many will bring cameras, but if there is someone who’d like to take on the responsibility of taking official photos that I can share from the site afterward, please let me know. We’ll even comp your ticket for taking on the challenge.

Park Day Info:

• Katie (Jensen) Pennington has planned a great day in the park. It’ll be a bit warm, but consider it a chance to get all tanned up for the evening. It will be at 11am at Mountain Crest Park located at Red Coach and Durango. (Google Map Link) Look for the Reunion banner.
• There is a water park for kids and we’re trying to get the volleyball court reserved as well.
• This is free for everyone and their families regardless of whether you are coming to the evening reunion. We’d ask that everyone bring a side dish or a dessert. Hot Dogs and hamburgers will be provided there.
• To be sure there is enough food, we’d like to get a head count of those who are planning on attending. To make it simple, just send an email to katie@1998spartans.com. Let her know how many will be coming with you and mention if you need a vegetarian burger.

Alright, I think that’s all the frequently asked questions. If there are anymore, leave a comment on this post and I’ll answer what i can.

I know there are quite a few people in the “planning to attend” category, so let this be your push into the “Attending” category. I’ve had a lot of fun seeing names come thru my inbox that I haven’t seen for a while.

A few things to mention:

• We’ve decided to move it up just a half hour so it’s now from 6-10PM with dinner being served at 6:30.
• The raffle is going to make a lot of people really happy. Prizes so far include a round of golf for four at Angel Park, a new girls GNU snowboard, Jason lee signed skate decks, hotel vacation package for Brianhead, a few spa massages and possibly a package at canyon ranch in the Venetian, tattoo gift certificates, etc. So be sure to bring some extra money to buy some raffle tickets (and to support a good cause.)
• Feel free to invite members of other classes (97, 99) There was a lot of support for it, and very little against. I think the bigger the group, the more fun it will be.

So, in case you haven’t signed up yet, we’d love to have a solid count by the end of the week. To reserve your spots, just list the names that should be on the guest list and press the “Pay Now” button. Be sure to select for two tickets on the checkout page if you’ll be bringing a guest. You can either use Paypal or a major credit card.

Please List Guest Name(s)

The reunion will be on July 19th from 6:30 to 10:30pm. Dinner will be served at 7pm. It will be held at the Angel Park Clubhouse.

Below you’ll find a link to officially reserve and pay for your spot at the reunion. A few things to mention:

• With the donations that were so nicely given, we were able to get the price down to $35.00/person. The price includes your dinner. (To give you an idea, I believe the 1997 class reunion was about $100/person.)
• We do have a limit on how many people can reserve. Be sure to grab your spot early. My guess is that we’ll be filled up long before the reunion happens.
• We’ll be having a barbecue/family activity in the park for families earlier on in the day. This is at no extra cost to you as it will be covered by donations. We’ll get a head count for the barbecue at a later time

When we graduated, we left about $3,500 in our senior class account. We tried to buy a new sound system for the gym as a gift to future classes, but Ms Corrado told us that we couldn’t. We then asked if we could put it in a fund for our ten year reunion and she again denied saying that we’ll have surely forgotten about it by then. That seems like just yesterday. I wonder how that money was used.

I think we’re setting up for a real fun night of dancing and socializing. There have been a lot of people helping to make this a great night.

To reserve your spots, just list the names that should be on the guest list and press the “Pay Now” button. Be sure to select for two tickets on the checkout page if you’ll be bringing a guest. You can either use Paypal or a major credit card.

Please List Guest Name(s)

We’re going to have the reunion at the Angel Park Clubhouse. There will be a served dinner, drinks, a dancefloor and plenty of time to socialize. It will likely be from 6:30 to 10:30PM. This would have been out of range on what most people wanted to pay, but one of our classmates (Dana Ellis) really stepped up with a big donation and offset the prices quite a bit. She’ll definitely be recognized at the dinner for making this possible. (Along those lines, any one else that wants to assure we have a good time and can help out financially or with door prize donations, please head over to the Donate Page.)

Other information:

• Katie Pennington has volunteered to put together a park day for anyone interested in showing off and meeting families. It will be that same Saturday, likely early afternoon. She has some great ideas. Anyone that would want to help her with this, please send me a note and I’ll put you in touch with her.
• Since we are at Angel Park, we can likely get some discounted golf in the morning as well. If there is anyone that would like to put together a golf tournament that morning, I think it would be a fun activity and we can recognize the winner that evening during the short program. Again, contact me if you’d like to head that up.
• If there is anyone crafty that would want to put together photo layouts (maybe from the yearbook) or would want to put together something else to display, let me know. I think that would be awesome.
• We’ll likely have a limit of about 250 for the dinner. I think this will be just about the right number of attendees, but regardless, you’ll want to be sure and get signed up and paid quickly to guarantee a spot. Because of this, we’ll be sticking with 1998 graduates for the dinner portion, but graduates from other classes can come later in the evening for socializing and dancing.
• We’ll plan to sell some raffle tickets at the dinner to support Amy’s great non-profit. I think this will be a nice feeling of satisfaction to help a classmate with such a good cause. So plan to bring a few extra bucks…we’ll make sure the prizes are worth it. Also, we could use some help to work with Amy in securing raffle donations. Please contact me and I’ll put you in touch with Amy. (Or if you think your company would donate something, let me know and Amy will be sure to provide a tax receipt for the write-off.)
• The dinner is going to be top notch. We’ll likely have a nice chicken plate served and also offer a prime rib carving station for anyone that needs a little more red in their meat. A plate like this would usually be too high for our budget, but donations should make this possible.
• There will be a lot of people putting a lot of hard work into this evening so it should be a great time. We decided not to go with a big planning company because you end up throwing a lot of money at things that aren’t necessary. The way we’ve done it, the money is all put to good use and each dollar will really have an affect on the night. The prices will likely be $30/single and $50/couple. For a nice dinner and dancing, that is less than would usually be spent.

With all that said, I’ll likely have another post up soon with official registration that will include payment options. You’ll definitely want to keep up with this site via the RSS Feed. Or sign up to get an email when updates are posted. In hearing from you guys, there is A LOT of excitement to come back together and see everyone. I think this will turn out to be a really fun evening.

]]> http://www.1998spartans.com/save-the-date-july-19th-2008/feed/ http://www.1998spartans.com/an-update-and-thoughts/ http://www.1998spartans.com/an-update-and-thoughts/#comments Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:09:00 +0000 Brian Stucki http://www.1998spartans.com/an-update-and-thoughts/ It’s been a few months so here is the update:

So far, we’ve had 119 people get their information in. This is a good number, but we’re still a few hundred people short. I’m sure most people will come out of the woodwork as dates and plans get set.

The opinions on what to do have been far reaching. Taking them all in, here is what i propose:

• So many folks wanted to meet families and kids of their classmates. I think it would be appropriate to have a family/casual daytime activity at the park where kids and families are welcome. This could be a “bring your own food” or is we have a budget we can do a barbecue of hot dogs and hamburgers and that sort of food. Perhaps someone would want to be in charge of games like volleyball, etc.
• A classmate, Mike Mancari, was good to reach out to me and let me know that he works with the Tao at the Venetian. He was bale to secure us a good rate and I think it’d be nice to hold it there. It would be dressy casual/nightlife attire. For about $40/single and $60/couple there would be food and soda provided. There would also be alcoholic beverages there for purchase. (Alcohol is usually the biggest expense for these type settings so I felt it was most fair to keep that out of the cost since some people drink and others don’t. Hopefully this is a nice middle road.)
• The night time activity would be about two hours. It would provide for socializing, a slide show I have from our Senior Class Assembly, hopefully some nice door prizes. Also, one of our own, Amy Purdy, has started a great non-profit organization since high school. She let me know about it thru the contact form and it seems like it would be fun to give the night a bit of a meaning by helping the organization out. (It also may be able to lower some costs if we can line up some donations.)
• I’ll plan to negotiate some comped/VIP’d services for anyone that would like to spend some time at the Tao night club after the reunion. I thought if the official reunion went from 7:30 to 9:30 then those who would like to stay around and club can do that.
• Right now I’m kind of pegging this to happen in mid-July. I think that should give enough planning for those who need to travel, but also early enough in the Summer for the rates to be a bit lower. (I’m told they escalate in August.)

So that’s where I’m at right now. I’d really like for anyone with initiative to let me know how they’d like to help. Also, nothing is set in stone (yet) so feel free to send in suggestions via the contact page. I’m sure there will be opinions from both ends of the spectrum, but I think we can put together something that everyone will enjoy.

Also, there was overwhelming support to invite people from the other classes. Please continue to find the 1998 class and have them get in their information, but also let other classes know they are free to register if they are interested. (We’ll need the head count so we know the price breakdown.)

]]> http://www.1998spartans.com/an-update-and-thoughts/feed/ http://www.1998spartans.com/hello-world/ http://www.1998spartans.com/hello-world/#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:55:14 +0000 Brian Stucki http://1998spartans.com/?p=1 Alright, you knew it was coming. It’s nearing ten years since we graduated and it’s time to get together, re-acquaint, and compare salaries catch up with each other.

Right now, we are in the very early stages of the reunion planning. Let’s focus on getting contact information of all those interested in attending and gathering ideas, offers to help and finding classmates. All those who can offer to help will be appreciated. (Remember, you can’t complain about the reunion if you didn’t offer to help. At least, that’s what my mom would say.)

To do this, we’ve created a page where you can fill in all your information and answer a few questions. All the information will be used for reunion purposes only. Please be thorough in your answers.

When you get done filling it out for yourself, please send this site along to anyone who graduated with us in 1998 and ask them to get registered as well. Wouldn’t it be great if we could find everyone?

So without further waiting, head on over to the Registration Page and get started. (Don’t worry, this isn’t an actual registration for the reunion. It’s mostly a “I want to stay informed as reunion planning materializes so here is my information and here are some ways I might be able to help” type page.)

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