CCS celebrates 6th all-school reunion
ZEKE WRIGHT  BENNINGTON BANNER
Posted: 07/18/2010 10:17:24 PM EDT

Sunday July 18, 2010
CAMBRIDGE, N.Y. -- Alumni and friends of the Cambridge Central School District returned this weekend to what many, despite now living miles away, still consider home, for the Sixth Annual CCS All School Reunion.

The CCS Alumni Association has held this gathering annually since 2005, open not only to alumni and their spouses, but also teachers, administrators, and those who may have attended Cambridge but not graduated from there. The event draws about 250 participants each year.

According to Betty (Jeskie) White ‘55, credit for the annual event is due in large part to Linda (McMorris) Record ‘59 and her late husband Dick ‘59. Record, who is vice president of the CCS Alumni Association, remembers how it began. "We started it five years ago because the class of ‘59 had been getting together every five years, and we combined class reunions, so [we’d have] the two classes before and the two after."

Record says it went so successful that somewhere along the way someone suggested making it a full weekend open to all alumni. The alumni association now has a dedicated committee of about a dozen, including White, whose work on the reunion weekend runs basically year round according to Record.

James Maxwell ‘68 came this year from the Bahamas for his first reunion since 1988. Maxwell endorsed the format of the all-years reunion, saying that "class sizes are small, so not only do you have friends in your class, but you have friends in the class above and below" that you get to see at this reunion. Like all class reunions, the CCS event reconnects old friendships and brings back memories.

"And she [Bernice (VanGuilder) Kieffer ‘58] was my babysitter in high school," Maxwell says. "And she said she’d wait for me, and then she left and married him," jabbing a finger toward Bernice’s husband Robert. Others in the conversation remembered things a little differently. "I was 12," protests Maxwell in defense.

Cornerstone events

When the annual all-school reunion first started, Record says they did tours of area locations of interest like the Cambridge Hotel and Common Sense farmstead. But with many repeat participants, the reunion now consists of a few cornerstone events, with extras each year as they present themselves, and with individual classes invited to craft their own spinoff activities over the same weekend.

"[It] starts on Friday with a reception somewhere in the village," says Record. For the past several years the reception has been at the freight depot behind Hubbard Hall. The Cambridge American Legion hosts Saturday’s daylong events and an alumni breakfast Sunday morning. Tom McMorris ‘70 was there Saturday snapping class photos.

This year alumni association president Ken Gottry ‘68 presented a slideshow at the Cambridge school gymnasium Saturday on the history of Mary McClellan Hospital. Nikki Klebieko ‘90, the new owner of the hospital, followed Gottry with future plans for the property. The presentation dovetailed perfectly with the reunion weekend, with most of the audience in attendance alumni, the majority of whom having been admitted at some point or born in that hospital.

Friday morning, Mike Baratto ‘62 hosted the Sixth Annual CCS Orange and Black Scramble at Windy Hills golf course in Greenwich.

Lucille (Dustin) Makrin ‘60 hosted 27 of her classmates for their 50th reunion Friday night. Makrin said that they were hoping to kayak the Battenkill as a group on Sunday.

The class of 1968 held a communal "60th birthday party" at Gottry’s house on Friday, as most of those classmates have found themselves hitting that particular milestone recently. Various other banner year classes held their own events over the course of the weekend.

MaryAnn McMorris Bassett ‘62 comes with her husband every year, and says it’s "like we have to come, to see the people we haven’t seen. This is still our home. We’ve lived in North Carolina for 30 years now, but this is home."

And after a little breather, the CCS Alumni Association committee can start planning for next year’s reunion, falling around the same time and in the same familiar places.

 

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