Malcolm Campbell High School Sixties Reunion update – May 12, 2014
I had a meeting with Peter Mearns on May 8, 2014 in Toronto. We met at the second-floor coffee shop at the Loblaws just east of the 427 on the south side of Burnamthorpe.
Peter said (I paraphrase): “Well, it looks like this reunion is taking on a life of its own.”
Here’s a brief and quick update.
We will need help to get the reunion organized. It’s not something that a handful of people can do on their own.
We’ll use the Preserved Stories website for organizing and information sharing purposes. People doing Google searches for “Malcolm Campbell High School” are finding their way to the site as it is.
To set up a separate site with professional quality web design would require considerable expense. There’s no point in spending money on a separate site given that we have one in place that we can use for reunion-related information coordination and publicity purposes.
The “Malcolm Campbell High School” Category at the Preserved Stories website will serve as the online information space for the planning process.
We’re looking at the years from 1962 to 1969 – that is, MCHS students who graduated in any of those years. In the event that students graduating from MCHS in the 1970s wanted to set up a reunion, we’d be pleased to help with the organizing of it but the Seventies Reunion may be at a separate venue, depending on the total numbers – for the Sixties and Seventies groups – that we would be dealing with.
In terms of numbers, Peter Mearns estimates that the Sixties Reunion numbers could be as high as 400 to 600 people.
Organizing committee
Before we proceed with setting a definitive date, we need to have a core group to help with the organizing of the reunion. Tasks:
1) Website – we have that.
2) One person who would be in charge of revenue; cost of the venue; cost of meals; tickets.
3) We need to figure out how we contact all of the potential attendees.
4) A message from Cheryl (see Comments section below) reminds us that the setting up of an emailing list will be a priority task as the planning gets under way.
Venue
Peter Mearns has checked out Old Mill Toronto. It’s a good venue for a reunion. The Old Mill can handle up to 600 people, with meals at about $55 to $60 a person. A bar is available. There would be three ballrooms for up to 200 people in each ballroom. The ballrooms can be sectioned off, as well, so that people can meet class by class.
Audiovisual resources are available. For example, for a plenary session, people would be able to speak to all 600 attendees at once via a video link at the site.
Groups of people could book tables together – for example for $600 for a table of 10.
Date of the event
We are looking at October 2015. That is what we are aiming for. We’re not yet at the point where we can narrow it down to a specific date. Probably it would be an all-day event on a Saturday.
The cost would probably be about $150 to $200 a person. We’re thinking of having a draw for cash as part of the event. Maybe there would be three draws.
This is a brief overview. I can provide more details later, but have many other projects to attend to at the moment.
I graduated from Malcolm Campbell High School in 1963. I came across this website purely by chance and want to know more about a potential reunion in 2015. Please put me on your emailing list and send me any info pertaining to this event. Although I live in Montreal, I would definitely attend. I am NOT on Facebook.
Cheryl
Hi Cheryl – I’m delighted to know you found your way to our website. We’ll ensure that you will be on our emailing list. It will be great if you can attend the reunion!
Just want to add, as well, that we’ve found a great Montreal smoked meat restaurant – north of Toronto!
http://preservedstories.com/2014/04/28/malcolm-campbell-high-school-montreal-sixties-reunion-committee-met-recently-at-centre-street-deli-in-thornhill-ontario/
Congrats to you Jaan , Peter and Lynn. We all know who it was that said ” a long march begins with the first step” And so folks the first of many has been taken.
Cheryl Casino Houston, correctly inspired the thought of the importance of a mailing list.
Classmates.com has a list of several of our former classmates. Let me poke around and see what can be gleamed from that source. I guess I will actually have to join and be hassled by them.
We owe thanks to you, Howard, for helping us along by suggesting we start to focus on the date of the reunion.
Whatever you can find regarding names and email addresses will be great. I’ll begin by starting with a version of the list from my end.
Anybody else who can help with us with development of a database of MCHS names and contact details, please contact me through this website.
MCHS (64) Found this site through Howard. Scott Round (64) lives just u the road from your meeting in Ste. Catherine, Live in Washington DC area but will likely attend in October.
Great to have you on board, Grant. Does Howard have the contact information for Scott Round? Howard is putting together a spreadsheet of names and contact information.