It’s Fall, so it must be Reunion Season. I’m happy to share that I celebrated my 30th William Penn High School (Philadelphia) Reunion last Saturday, October 7, 2017, 8 p.m. – 12 a.m. at The Oaks Ballroom in Glenolden, PA.
As a proud 1987 graduate of William Penn High School (Communications Magnet), I was excited to plan and organize my Reunion Weekend for the 4th time. As one of the organizers of the 10th, 20th and 25th Reunion, I’m proud and happy that we had another successful reunion weekend.
This Reunion was special for several reasons… One, I’m blessed to celebrate my 30th Reunion. — Blessed because we have four classmates that are no longer with us. Our deceased classmates were recognized with a moment of silence and we displayed their in memory photos.
Also, we received positive feedback from our classmates that attended. Many of our classmates expressed their gratitude for us organizing the reunion.
Another reason was two of our classmates didn’t think they would make it due to recent surgeries. Both attended and were in good spirits and both of them were happy about our graduation photo souvenir tag. One classmate lost her yearbook due to a house fire years ago so she didn’t have a cap and gown photo and the other classmate never had a chance to see his graduation photo. Both stories touched me in a special way.
Shoutout to the Overbrook High School, Class of 1987 for posting their Class Reunion photos recently via Facebook. Their reunion was Saturday, September 30, 2017. After reviewing their photos, I was even more excited about my reunion and we even borrowed a few ideas.
Special Thanks to the William Penn Class of 1987 Reunion Committee members for taking on this project and reaching out and encouraging our fellow classmates to attend our reunion weekend celebration.
45 graduates and guests attended the reunion for a night of fun and fond memories along with my high school track coach, Mr. Tim Hickey who taught math at William Penn as well and my husband, Wayne E. Roberts, Class of 1985.
Another cool thing about our reunion weekend is that our graduates came as far as Washington State, Ohio and North Carolina to attend our celebration.
In addition to our Reunion Celebration, several classmates met up for a Meet and Greet on Friday night. Our first stop was Warmdaddy’s for Happy Hour then Philly’s Platinum Grille for dinner and dancing. We ended our weekend at Buffalo Wild Wings while we watched the Eagles win at home against the Arizona Cardinals.
A few thoughts I wanted to share if you are debating or not sure if you want to attend your high school reunion. I say you only live once. Life is short. So attend your reunion and enjoy. Don’t worry about the following thoughts that often come up. Thoughts like … I didn’t have many friends in high school. I’m not successful. I’m not as youthful as I used to be. Whatever negative thoughts you may come up with please replace them with positive thoughts like… I will attend and have a fun evening with my classmates. 🙂
We were pleased to see our classmates that attended their first reunion celebration and they vowed to join us again for our next celebration.
As I think about our reunion weekend, another reason why this reunion was so special is it’s our first time together since our school was demolished. Our school is no longer there and ironically it’s now Temple University’s track. Ironic because William Penn High School is known for track and field, thanks to Coach Tim Hickey and our AWESOME women’s teams. During my 4 years, 1984 – 1987, I’m excited to share that my cross country, indoor and outdoor teams won each year. (Another blog post to come…)
I’ve attended each class reunion. Even if I wasn’t an organizer, I could not imagine not attending, not because I was Ms. Popular, but because I believe in embracing life and high school is a special part of me. High School is a part of you too!
As for Reunion Season, I heard yesterday that Central High School will be celebrating their 30th Reunion on Saturday, October 28. So if you are a graduate of Central, enjoy and tell me about your evening.
Future reunions?? I would love to hear from you. If you attended your reunion recently, please share your positive memories and photos. 😉
RunPRDawn 