Webmaster's Corner

Notes from your friendly webmaster, Dave Ratisher

Well folks, all the years of hard work on this project paid off with the success of our 20th Year Reunion on August 3, 2002.  So many people were so generous in coming up to me during the reunion, and I was truly touched and couldn't be more grateful.  However, we couldn't have pulled this off without ALL of you.

I must point out the TEAM EFFORT required to make this a reality and a success.  First and foremost, my thanks and love to our Reunion Committee chairperson, Gail (Martinez) Gugerli, who teamed up with me over 2 years ago when we discovered we lived in the same town at the time (Duluth, GA, from where we've both since relocated).  We had never known each other in HS, but as a result of this have become great friends and teammates in working together on the reunion.  Gail deserves the lion's share of the credit for the reunion event itself...if you didn't realize this until now, please be so advised, and drop her a note if the spirit moves you.

We also organized a great Reunion Committee, and although many of these folks have been modest in deferring much of the credit to others, each one of these folks made real contributions in his/her own way.  Props, please, to: Bobby Lue (committee co-chair), Russell Barnes, Albert Belcher, Dina Bratcher, Robin Garmise, Debbie (Kaplan) Thompson, Mercedes Marrero, Barbara Myers, Della Pray, Dan (Sapinkopf) Sapen, and Jatrine Stewart.

During and after the reunion, I made a few observations I'd like to share with you all:

First of all, it sure looked to me like we overflowed the room!  Several folks commented to me that they made a last-minute decision to attend after consulting with their friends directly...and that's what this has all been about all along - putting folks back in touch with each other and putting the power in YOUR own hands.  I couldn't help but feel like it was "Mission Accomplished!"  Thank you all.

Another thing I noticed is how it looked like folks were just simply glad to be there, whether they saw people they wanted to see, saw people they didn't necessarily want to see, or didn't see people they really wanted to see (is that circular enough?).  I know I felt that way.  It was one of those events where it looked like everyone just felt good to have been there, regardless of whether or not they came away with any new or renewed friends or contacts.

After it was over, I thought back and realized that there was a surprising lack of "microphone time"...you know, those classic, stereotypical "reunion moments" where someone takes the mic and announces who came the farthest, who did this, who ended up that, and so on.  At first, I was disappointed that we didn't do much of that, and then it occurred to me: The reason we didn't do that was because everyone was just so busy having a GREAT time catching up with old friends!  Next thing we knew, it was past Midnight!  The night just flew by.  I don't know about the rest of you, but that just seems like a GREAT thing to me.

Thanks for everyone's support of this project over the years.  (If you'd like to know how this all started, check out the Project Background Info page.)  Although we had our big "payoff" with the reunion, I'm still going to try to keep this web site going as long as I can, so keep those photos and contacts coming!  Help me keep everything as up to date as possible...resist the urge to procrastinate!

Oh, and thanks for reading this far and indulging my written ramblings!

-D.R.

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