50TH Reunion Flash-backs - Class of 1958

Our big gala was held at the Hilton Hotel in Alexandria,VA the weekend of June 13-15, 2008 with an attendance of well over 200. Ron Lee spent over 5 years creating our 50th Reunion Directory that is filled with biographies & 400 pictures. Suzanne Cayton Berns compiled a lovely cookbook with delicious recipes from classmates. Seed money & various items donated by many classmates made an affordable rate possible for the reunion activities & goodie bags.

About 20 worker bees gathered on Thursday to fill the goodie bags so they would be ready when the attendees began arriving on Friday. Ellie Rubin Baldwin (with the help of her sound crew Mike Murtha and Frank Sokolove) played beautiful music on a synthesizer in the Hilton lobby to welcome classmates as they arrived. Soon other hotel guests gathered around and joined in the sing-along. A Friday evening reception was held at the Old Dominion Boat Club and a few guests from the classes of 1956 and 1957 also attended.Saturday morning folks enjoyed an excellent tour of Wakefield High School given by guides from the Wakefield Ambassador Club. The fancy limo/bus was provided by a company who rents an office from the family who so kindly allowed us to use their historic home for our Garden Party. The driver’s daughter was a Wakefield grad and is now in dental school. Thanks to John & Leslie Ariail we were able to have a Garden Party at their historic Cameron St. home on Sat.

The cocktail party and Silent Auction were held simultaneously just before the buffet dinner dance. Thanks to the efforts of so many generous classmates, we were able to raise about $4K from the Silent Auction for our Class of ‘58 Endowment! Proceeds from Sandy Stevens Doty’s beautifully handmade quilt, which was won by Jim Brett (our webMaster), brought in just under $1K for our Endowment! The hit of the weekend was the appearance of The Coasters, a famous doo-wop quartet from the ‘50s, courtesy of Ron Terwilliger.

Stan Palivoda brought his beautiful paddleboat, The Vivian Hannah, to the main dock in Alexandria for the weekend. Stan had a huge 50th Reunion banner on his New Orleans paddlewheel, and over 100 classmates were thrilled with the Sunday morning cruise up the Potomac to see the sights of Washington.