The Portage High School graduating class of 1993 gathered at the beautiful Duneland Falls Banquet Center Saturday night for their twenty-year class reunion. An impressive hundred and six classmates R.S.V.P.’d to attend; down only 12 people from the class’ 10-year reunion.
Primarily using a Facebook group dedicated to the class, graduates were re-connecting, communicating and planning their 20-year reunion months in advance. Student Body President John Arredondo and Senior Class President Joe Romero were the primary organizers of the evening and noted how effective using Facebook as an organizational tool was as opposed to the snail mail method used for their 10-year reunion.
“It’s different now with social media where you can keep in touch with people,” said Arredondo, “But as the day came closer, even though we’re all connected on Facebook, we were getting excited about seeing each other and actually looking at each other and hanging out rather than just communicating through a computer.”
According to Romero, in order to plan the evening, classmates of the 1993 graduating class also met in person this past December to see what activities people would enjoy at the reunion. The final format included the musical upbeats of DJ’s Freddie Castro and Eddie Escalante of Vegas Baby, appetizers so that attendees would have more of an opportunity to mingle, beer and wine for necessary entertainment purposes, and a photo booth to create new memories while rehashing the old.
After an hour of classmates reuniting with hugs, high fives and bouts of excitement, Romero and Arredondo approached the stage to thank all of the people involved in putting together the evening’s events and to also recognize the fourteen members of their class that had passed during the 20 years since their graduation. Members of the audience were heard expressing sounds of surprise and recognition and seen with expressions of solemn respect and loss for the names of the classmates Arredondo listed who were no longer with them.
Romero and Arredondo also thanked everyone who came out to reconnect in person that evening. They noted that they were both a little nervous three weeks ago when only thirty people had signed up to attend. Fortunately, when push came to shove, they were both thrilled with the over 100 people (most of whom R.S.V.P’d at the last minute) that were there and ready to celebrate.
Arredondo said, “Our class blows the other reunions away; they’re talking 25 to 30 people.” He continued, “We have 106 classmates, and that’s only 12 less than the 10-year reunion.”
The impressive number of people in attendance was just as impressively matched by a number of classmates who traveled long distances for the occasion. A handful of classmates travelled (some even driving the distances) from San Diego, Georgia, New York, Virginia and North Carolina to reunite with their old friends. Seann Richardson of San Diego, California was one of the attendees who chose to travel the long distance in order to attend.
She said, “I had a lot of friends I haven’t seen in a long time and my family still lives here too.” Richardson continued that she was also looking forward “to catching up with old friends I haven’t seen in a long time.” She said, “It’s really fun seeing everybody, we catch up on Facebook, but it’s nice to talk in person.”
With the aid of Facebook, a number of helpful volunteers, ambitious classmates willing to travel long distances, and the good works and good cheer of class leaders John Arredondo and Joe Romero, the PHS class of ‘93’s 20-year reunion was a great success. The coming together of this, as Arredondo said, “tight- knit” class can perhaps be taken as proof that even with the quick connections social media networks like Facebook provide, there is nothing compared to reuniting face to face with old friends who were sorely missed.
Click here to view more photos from the reunion!