Our 40-Year Reunion

Our seventh reunion was Saturday, July 16, 2011. The site of the reunion was at the Top of the Park banquet facility in the Park Place Hotel (www.park-place-hotel.com) in Traverse City. Attending were 52 classmates and 13 spouses/friends for a total of 65. Happy Hour was from 6-7 p.m. with a buffet dinner at 7. Thanks to great nametags by Susan Sparrow Carson and Mark Aulie, we knew who we were talking to. We ate well thanks to our menu committee of Sue Rodgers Hartemayer and Christy Stone Longrie who made the menu selections. Dinner music featured David Barrett, Andover Class of 1972. After dinner, we had a program hosted by MC's Thurman and Trent Dalrymple. T 'n T had a segment they called "Separated at Birth". Was Jeff Henning and Dr. Phil really twins who were separated at birth? We wonder. After that, Pete Bowers showed a video entitled Andover High School Now. He showed us some of the changes to Andover over the past 40 years. There is a link to the video on our class Facebook page. Pete had some announcements to make and thanked the Reunion Committee members individually who worked hard over the last year to make sure this reunion went well. As we left the banquet room around 11:30 p.m., people took a copy of the Bio Book, a compilation of 45 classmate bios. Some headed to the bar next to the banquet room, others headed to different bars. What happens in Traverse City stays in Traverse City?

Attended Reunion:

Mike Suszan (2), E.J. Levy, Debbie Smith Berg, Sally Zellen Oswald (2), Jan Harley, Barbro Andren McGinn, Christy Stone Longrie, Sue Rodgers Hartemayer, Trent Dalrymple, Ellen Pankratz White, Thurman Dalrymple (2), Pete Bowers, Mark Aulie (2), George Poy, Ann Coughlin Lynch, Anne Cole Pierce, Cheryl Haselhuhn Lippert, Pam South Hays, Millie Warren, Chip Lloyd (2), Paul Denzer, Matt Lyons, Dave Wertz, Bob Smith, Holly Drake Smith, Guy Kevin Farron, Scott McPherson, Janis Carrier Schilling, Susan Sparrow Carson, Arielle Emmett, Mara Neal, Eileen Richmond Blake (2), Karen Smith, Rick Eoff (2), Sandy Sweeney Feloni, Yvonne Matisse Tomaszewski (2), Sue Britt Wright, Janet Pullman Wasko (2), Michael Perry, Audrey Andrus Waldron, Doug Byrum, Rod Gay, Laura Martens Wunderink (2), Lee Cooke, Al Avram, Jerry Crubaugh, Mike Morelli (2), Dennis Kelly (2), Craig Bassin, Rob White, Judy Walker McGrath and Rick Stecker (2).

(2) means classmate and spouse or friend.

We had a pre-reunion beach party Friday, July 15, at Debbie Berg's family cottage in Eastport. Her cottage is right on the bay with a great view of the sunset. Party started at 6 p.m. and there was lots of food and drink. Does three half kegs of beer from a local microbrewery sound good? It was! There was a campfire on the beach and a full moon. 50 people attended and some stayed until the shuttle bus took them back to the Park Place after 1 a.m. At least Larry the Bus Driver Guy stopped for gas on the way out so he didn't have to get gas on the way back. A lot of people helped out that night especially Millie Warren, Mike Morelli and Cheryl, and Chef Al Avram. Add it all together and it was the BEST pre-reunion party we've ever had!

A bike ride was scheduled for Saturday morning. E.J. Levy (Mr. Biker) led a group of four (Mark Waldrep, Arielle Emmett and Pete Bowers) up the Leelanau Trail, a former rail line converted to bike path. The group went about 10 miles up and 10 miles back. Other classmates did fun stuff on Saturday. The group on Torch Lake had fun...look at those photos.

We also had a post-reunion breakfast Sunday, July 17 at 9 a.m. in Minervas, a restaurant on the first floor of the Park Place Hotel. A total of 30 had breakfast and final words before heading home.

Was Reunion Weekend memorable? Look at the photos posted on Facebook (soon to be on this website). Thanks to George Poy for posting the photos taken by him and many others. The looks on the faces speak for themselves.

Reunion #7 Weekend Recap

Reunion #7 was July 15-17, 2011 in Traverse City. Photos and videos of the event are posted on Facebook now and will be posted on this website in the future.

We had 50 total people attend the Friday night beach party at Debbie's cottage in Eastport.

We had 52 classmates and 13 spouses/friends for a total of 65 attend the reunion Saturday night.

We had 30 people come to breakfast in Minervas Sunday morning. The Bio Book had 45 bios in it.

Thank you to the Reunion Committee for their work over the last year:

Debbie Smith Berg (Friday night party including food and drink, shuttle bus, kegs of beer acquisition, email communications and reunion promotion)

Sue Rodgers Hartemayer and Christy Stone Longrie (menu decisions and Park Place Hotel banquet liason)

Susan Sparrow Carson and Mark Aulie (welcome table and nametags)

George Poy (photography and photo acquistion, posting of photos on Facebook)

Thurman and Trent Dalrymple (MC's for reunion program, powerpoint presentations)

E.J. Levy (Saturday morning bike ride)

Chip Lloyd (email communications and promotion)

Sally Zellen Oswald and Barbro Andren McGinn (input during committee meetings)

Pete Bowers, Chairperson (Banquet booking, invitations, registrations, banking/financial, three committee meeting conference calls, Facebook group administrator, class website, postal mass mailing, YouTube channel, Andover High School Now video for program, videos of bike ride, reunion and Sunday morning breakfast, sound system, dinner music, Bio Book and memorabilia.

Thank you to a lot of people who helped out Friday night especially Millie Warren, Mike Morelli and Cheryl, and Al Avram.

Special thank you to Jerry Crubaugh for providing screen and projector, Paul Denzer for his technical help and Craig Bassin for his all-around help.

Thank you to those who provided generous levels of financial support! If I've missed thanking someone who should be thanked, I apologize.

We encourage classmates to join Facebook and request to join our Andover Class of 1971 group. We currently have 104 classmates out of 435 in our Facebook group. We hope to contact people electronically and doing so through Facebook makes it easy for us. Look over the Missing in Action list. If you have any contact information for anyone on that list, contact me at andoverclassof1971@gmail.com.

Pete Bowers, Class President For Life

Taking trips down Memory Lane with Doug Byrum and Christy Stone Longrie!