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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