Please mark your calendars for our 25th high school reunion. Reunion weekend is September 6 - 7, 2013. Our class party will be Saturday, September 7th. Location and details are TBD.
You may have noticed I created a Facebook page for our class as well. Not everybody uses Facebook, so I'll try to post the pertinent details to our blog page as well. Anybody can post to this blog page, but you will need a Google ID and password.
In the near future, we'll need a party planning committee (volunteers needed!) and we'll try to locate and communicate with as many people as possible.
I hope this message finds you in good health and good spirits.
Dave
SPA Reunion Homepage
Monday, March 25, 2013
Friday, May 6, 2011
Alumni/ae Annual Fund: The Spartan Challenge
Dear Classmates,
I've never worked in sales, nor have I had desire to. I was raised to be self sufficient and I guess it's unnatural for me to ask for something from another. I've also never worked in fund raising for charitable or uncharitable ventures. I did once dabble in fetish films, but that's a story for another day.
My point is, I'm uncomfortable posting a plea for funds for SPA or anybody else, but I'll throw this out and let you make your own decision.
The Annual Giving Office has a May drive for new donors to the Annual Fund. (Since our class has historically low participation rates, I guess we're viewed as very fertile ground.) For class years 1981 - 1995, if the donor rate is raised from 10% to 20% during the month of May, an anonymous donor has pledged $5,000. That works out to 131 new donors, or about nine donors per class year. I have some thoughts and uneducated guesses about the identity of the anonymous donor, but that's secondary.
If you're planning to make charitable contributions this year AND you've never given to the SPA Annual Fund, I hope you'll consider a donation in any amount during May. All the pertinent information and easy donation instructions can be found by following the link (that I will somehow, f'ing figure out how to attach to this post.)
Even you're not planning on giving, click the link and check out the photo they chose for this campaign; you won't regret it.
I hope spring weather is finding you and your families happy and healthy in whatever part of the world you're making home!
Sincerely,
Dave Salchow
I've never worked in sales, nor have I had desire to. I was raised to be self sufficient and I guess it's unnatural for me to ask for something from another. I've also never worked in fund raising for charitable or uncharitable ventures. I did once dabble in fetish films, but that's a story for another day.
My point is, I'm uncomfortable posting a plea for funds for SPA or anybody else, but I'll throw this out and let you make your own decision.
The Annual Giving Office has a May drive for new donors to the Annual Fund. (Since our class has historically low participation rates, I guess we're viewed as very fertile ground.) For class years 1981 - 1995, if the donor rate is raised from 10% to 20% during the month of May, an anonymous donor has pledged $5,000. That works out to 131 new donors, or about nine donors per class year. I have some thoughts and uneducated guesses about the identity of the anonymous donor, but that's secondary.
If you're planning to make charitable contributions this year AND you've never given to the SPA Annual Fund, I hope you'll consider a donation in any amount during May. All the pertinent information and easy donation instructions can be found by following the link (that I will somehow, f'ing figure out how to attach to this post.)
Even you're not planning on giving, click the link and check out the photo they chose for this campaign; you won't regret it.
I hope spring weather is finding you and your families happy and healthy in whatever part of the world you're making home!
Sincerely,
Dave Salchow
Friday, February 12, 2010
Congratulations to Jesse and Laurie Bradley!
Congratulations to Jesse and Laurie Bradley on the birth of their new daughter Liliana! Liliana joins her older brothers Joel and Silas.
Jesse is the Senior Pastor at Sebastopol Christian Church in Sonoma County California. http://www.sebchristian.com/home.aspx?iid=55106
Me? I'm still afraid I'd spontaneously combust if I ever stepped into a place of worship.
Dave Salchow
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Unsanctioned '80s Holiday Party
The traditional decade party hosted by SPA was cancelled this year due to low attendance last year. However, a bunch of people have been contacting the reunion committee to see if it's taking place. Enter our holiday hero, Chris Cheney, who has organized the rebel Spartans' party:
Friday, Dec 26th
Fairview & Selby in St. Paul
9pm onward
No free beer, but free cheer.
Please spread the word to other '80s SPA alums. And contact Chris with any questions: ccheney@everestfg.us
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Thank you for your support
Hello everyone,
I hope everyone who attended the class party is still feeling the warm fuzzys from last weekend like I am. I wish I could write as well as Cat to express my feelings about how great is was to see everyone again. I was simply blown away by the number of you who came out, and by the few surprise visitors who dropped by.
Did anyone else have that bizarre experience where you're looking at a total stranger for 2 to 5 seconds, then suddenly the recognition kicks in and memories flood back? To me, that was the most surreal part of the evening.
I'm humbly grateful for the recognition I received for my part organizing the reunion. I thank you very much. The truth is my role as organizer and communicator made me a little more visible, but the class party was truly a team effort. Your reunion committee consisted of Rich Barlow, Chris Cheney, Dan Deuel, Fred Kaemmer, Cat McKenzie, Amy Myrbo, and Jennifer O'Brien. Everybody pitched in contacting and reconnecting with classmates. I intentionally took a half step back from the party details because it's simply not my forte. I probably would have booked the local 'Crapplebee's' and served those little cocktail weinees and meatballs. The team picked a great location and I couldn't image the food or drink being any better! A special thanks goes out to Jennifer who managed all the details with Cafe Lurcat.
I'm not a prolific or good photographer, but I'm posted my photo on a flickr page. (Somebody let me know if that didn't work.)
I hope we can continue this blog and share our lives in other ways; a lot of us are "friends" on Facebook, if you care to join us. We were only successful contacting around 60% of the class and we have no contact information at all for about 10 of us. Some people prefer to leave the past where it lies, so we'll never get everyone to join. But if you run across any classmates during your journeys, please direct them this way and maybe we'll have a few more for the 25 year.
Your friend,
Dave
I hope everyone who attended the class party is still feeling the warm fuzzys from last weekend like I am. I wish I could write as well as Cat to express my feelings about how great is was to see everyone again. I was simply blown away by the number of you who came out, and by the few surprise visitors who dropped by.
Did anyone else have that bizarre experience where you're looking at a total stranger for 2 to 5 seconds, then suddenly the recognition kicks in and memories flood back? To me, that was the most surreal part of the evening.
I'm humbly grateful for the recognition I received for my part organizing the reunion. I thank you very much. The truth is my role as organizer and communicator made me a little more visible, but the class party was truly a team effort. Your reunion committee consisted of Rich Barlow, Chris Cheney, Dan Deuel, Fred Kaemmer, Cat McKenzie, Amy Myrbo, and Jennifer O'Brien. Everybody pitched in contacting and reconnecting with classmates. I intentionally took a half step back from the party details because it's simply not my forte. I probably would have booked the local 'Crapplebee's' and served those little cocktail weinees and meatballs. The team picked a great location and I couldn't image the food or drink being any better! A special thanks goes out to Jennifer who managed all the details with Cafe Lurcat.
I'm not a prolific or good photographer, but I'm posted my photo on a flickr page. (Somebody let me know if that didn't work.)
I hope we can continue this blog and share our lives in other ways; a lot of us are "friends" on Facebook, if you care to join us. We were only successful contacting around 60% of the class and we have no contact information at all for about 10 of us. Some people prefer to leave the past where it lies, so we'll never get everyone to join. But if you run across any classmates during your journeys, please direct them this way and maybe we'll have a few more for the 25 year.
Your friend,
Dave
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Send me your pics
Hey alums,
Thank you to everyone who attended our 20th class reunion. Echoing Cat's blog posting, I also had a wonderful time reconnecting with everyone. Overall, the reunion was a reassuring and grounding experience. Sometimes it's nice to be reminded where we came from and how far we've gone – nothing does that better than a class reunion. Whether it's running experiments on Super Colliders in Switzerland, defending low-income/disadvantaged clients in Seattle, broadcasting with NBC in NYC, following successful artistic careers or educating the next generation of leaders (to name just a few), it's safe to say our class is a pretty impressive bunch. It makes me smile to think we all suffered through our teen years (or more) together.
A big thank you goes out to the committee (Dave Salchow, Amy Myrbo, Rich Barlow, Chris Cheney, Fred Kaemmer, Cat MacKenzie, Daymond Dean, Andrew Arashiba) who helped track down classmates and organize the big day. I always looked forward to emails from this group as each one found a long-lost face and shared their news. Planning the whole thing was MUCH more fun than I anticipated.
Thank you to Theresa (Zottola) Drift for sharing her pictures from both the All School Dinner on Friday and our class party on Saturday. I've created a flickr page with these images for everyone to share. If you have more, feel free to email them my way, and I'll add them to the set. My email is jobrienreg@hotmail.com.
Good luck and best wishes, everyone. Let's stay in touch.
One Big Hug
So....since I've been back in NYC everyone keeps asking me how the weekend was. I just smile and say GREAT! So much FUN!
But I was sitting here...trying to really put into words how it felt to be around so much familiarity and family at the same time and came up with this.
For me at least...this was what seeing you all, being with you all was like...with almost everyone it was like no time had passed...conversations were not silted or halted...and the joy that bubbled inside of me at seeing old faces was truly geniune...
I wrote this next line to a friend who asked for details about the weekend it sums it for me the best...
It was really comfortable once everybody got over the whole "what are you doing now" thing in some ways it felt like one big long supportive hug the kind that makes you feel stronger when it's over...the kind you'll long for again when it's not there right at your fingertips.
Thanks Class of '88 for memories good and bad...but for not forgetting where we all came from.
OK I'm done being sappy now - please those who ever head out to the Big Apple give me a ring so we can share glass , tell more old stories and have one more hug. See you all soon! Love Cat "Cathy" McKenzie
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