FAQ – MCHS 2015 Reunion

Hallway outside Brûlé Rooms  at Old Mill Toronto. The reunion will take place at the Humber Room, on the second floor of the building. Attendees who wish to find quieter places to talk, during the evening of the reunion, can hang out in hallways on floors throughout Old Mill Toronto, if they seek a quiet place to talk. Jaan Pill photo

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The project to set up a separate MCHS 2015 website, and the FAQ you are now reading, began with a comment from MCHS Alumnus John Kovac at this post:

DJ or Master of Ceremonies? That’s a key question for the MCHS ’60s Reunion & Celebration of the ’60s organizing committee

John Kovac wrote:

• I know I received notice of the reunion and certain details, but I cannot find the information in my files nor do I see the info posted visibly on this web site. May I suggest a large banner, allowing easy access to all the info, including the cost, how to remit payment, guarantee if the event has to be postponed, or if the attendee must cancel, refund policy, hotel arrangements (if any) and other FAQs. I believe many people are hesitant to send in payment this far in advance without a refund guarantee. It would also be appreciated if we knew how many classmates in each year of graduation have committed to attend. John

Kathy Hann (Tuff) added:

• I totally agree John. I think those details in one place would be so helpful to everyone. Thanks for making that suggestion.

[End of comments]

What do I get for $150? Click here to access our five-minute online video:

What does the $150 cover?

The $150 covers the cost of renting the meeting rooms at Old Mill Toronto, the cost of the Buffet Dinner, and the other expenses associated with the organizing of the non-profit reunion event. To access the Old Mill Toronto website, click here.

For $150, you get to buy an incredible and priceless experience, something you will cherish for the rest of your life. You get to spend an evening hanging out, with MCHS schoolmates from across North America (and possibly beyond) in congenial and attractive surroundings, while enjoying a delicious and appetizing Humber Buffet Dinner.

You will be in surroundings where the music is not going to drown out the conversations. Many people have said, “Don’t make the music too loud! We want to be able to hear each other talk. That’s what we’re there for.”

In what for some of us will be a once in a lifetime opportunity, we will get to meet and chat with classmates that we may not have seen for 40 or 50 (depending on when you graduated) years.

Click here to access a blog post about: What do I get for $15O? >

Why a reunion in Toronto and not Montreal?

Question: Just curious. Why hold the reunion in Toronto when MCHS was in Montreal? Seems so remote.

Answer: That’s a good question. Our thinking was that MCHS ’60s graduates are now concentrated in Ontario, and spread as well across North America from Vancouver to Florida, and also living in other countries such as Australia. The school itself was closed in 1987, as I understand.

Many of the key organizers for the reunion live in southern Ontario. That’s another reason why we settled on Toronto.

We encourage people to hold smaller mini-reunions on Montreal and elsewhere. A highly successful mini-reunion was held in Montreal in mid-August 2014:

Montreal MCHS mini-reunion on Aug. 13, 2014 in Montreal turned out extremely well

An MCHS Sixties grad is interested in a mini-reunion – a casual get together – in Montreal in mid-August 2014

We are pleased that many alumni have been involved in the staging of such get togethers over the years. We enjoy hearing about those events. It’s always interesting to learn what has worked well, and what can work even better. It’s great when we have the opportunity to compare notes about previous reunions and mini-reunions.

Especially given that we have a Database in place, thanks to work by Howard Hight and Diana Redden, and with people connecting via social media, all it takes is one or a handful of people to set up a mini-reunion — a casual, informal get together of 3 or 13 people — anywhere in the world, at any time.

The Home Smith Jazz Bar at Old Mill Toronto is another place where people can meet on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015 prior to the opening of the Brûlé Rooms at 6:00 pm. Jaan Pill photo

How can I help?

You can help by registering, if you have not yet registered.

You can help by making a small donation to help us cover the costs of organizing this event. What better way to celebrate your success than by donating to a worthy cause.

You can also help by contacting classmates that you know from your years at MCHS.

Each person who chooses to attend, and who encourages others to attend, is playing what is the essential and most important role in the organizing of the reunion. Just turning up!

We need help in other ways also. Let us know if there is some area, related to the planning and staging of a reunion, that you would like to help us with. That’s the way to get the conversation started. That’s pretty much how the organizing team came into existence, when we first began talking about staging a ’60s reunion,

Who will remember me?

I like this question. It has stayed with me.

Question: I graduated in 1969. Due to a lot of life’s circumstances, and being bipolar, I don’t remember very many people from high school. Do you think anyone remembers me?

Answer: I am certain that each of us, who passed through the doors and walked the halls of the school, is remembered by somebody. That’s what I believe.

The MCHS ’60s Reunion welcomes everybody. We have given a lot of thought to creating a format that ensures that every attendee feels at home, feels at ease.

Speaking for myself, I am very much looking forward to meeting people from across the whole range of ’60s graduating classes including the many people that I’ve never met in person before, or that I did not get to know that well during the years that I attended high school.

Old Mill Toronto features an inner courtyard, which serves as one of the locations where MCHS 60s alumni can meet on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2015 prior to the 6:00 pm start of the reunion. Jaan Pill photo

I don’t remember all that many people from high school. That’s because I’ve never had a particularly strong memory for many of the things that happen day to day. Some things I remember but many things I forget. Fortunately, I have friends from my class (11-B in 1962-63) who have really good memories.

So they share stories when we meet, online as well as in person, and all kinds of events and all kinds of classmates and teachers are described in such detail, that I feel I’m watching a movie that brings the story to life for me.

Each person has different recollections of the high school years. By way of example, a person may share the thought that they did not enjoy the high school years at all, but they are keen to touch base again with friends from those years.

Another person might note that when they were in high school, their real self, their real “who they are,” had not yet been developed. Thus when they go back, to a reunion, they go back as a different person than the person that they were in high school.

Like many people, the years since high school have brought many changes to my own life. While some things about who I am haven’t changed, I’m not quite the same person that I was way back then. My story is not unusual. Some things change. Some things remain the same. At a reunion, we have an opportunity to hang out and share our stories, whatever the stories that we wish to share may be.

How many people are you expecting?

We are aiming for up to 90  attendees. That’s the maximum number of people that the Humber Room at Old Mill Toronto, where the event will take place, will be able to manage. We currently (Sept. 5, 2015) have about 50 people registered. We anticipate that the final figure will likely be just a little over 60 – but there’s no way of knowing, until we get closer to the event. It’s not unusual, in my experience, for some people to wait until the last minute. In that regard, it’s worth knowing some deadlines:

Deadlines and events

What if I don’t like loud music?

During the Buffet Dinner, which offers people the opportunity to mix and mingle, we have decided that we will not have loud music in the background. At such a time, people want the opportunity talk under conditions where it’s easy to carry on conversations.

When people want to find quiet place to chat, when people are dancing, there are plenty of places in the hallways outside of Brûlé Room C, where the reunion will take place. Attendees at the reunion are free to find places to chat anywhere they like, within the Old Mill Toronto building.

I want to dance. Tell me about the dancing.

We will ensure that your needs are met as well. To help us at this task, we have set up a separate Entertainment Subcommittee to ensure that the dancers among us also have a great time. We have decided that we will have a Disk Jockey as well as a series of Masters of Ceremonies, representing each of the graduation cohorts who are at the reunion. We are developing a Playlist.

Is this only a 50th reunion?

It’s a reunion for every person who was at MCHS any time in the 1960s. That includes people who started in the late 60s and graduated in the early 1970s.

If you’re looking at the reunion in terms of the date of the opening of the school, it has been said it’s really a 55th year reunion. The school opened in September 1961, so if you do a little rounding off, it’s 55 years since the school actually opened.

We’ve spoken from time to time of a 50-year reunion, in the sense that it’s close to 50 years since many of us graduated. If a person graduated in 1963, then it’s been 52 years. For someone who graduated in 1973, it’s been 42 years.

We’ve learned, from a Facebook conversation, that we as organizers need to be careful not to create confusion regarding this topic. It’s a good idea to look at it this as a ’60s reunion, period.

Refund Policy

The classmates who have been putting together this event have done so at personal financial cost and also vast amounts of time. Non-refundable funds have been put down to cover the cost of renting the Old Mill, as well as other event costs.

This is a non-profit event. We hope you understand that we need your financial support as soon as possible. It’s going to be an amazing event of memories and we’d love to see you there, but to fulfil our financial obligations, we need you to commit ASAP.

Since we have committed to these costs in advance, we are not in a position to offer refunds at this point in time.

However once the event takes place, if for any reason you are unable to attend, our first priority will be to refund, proportionally, any funds you paid in. These funds will be taken from any monies we have left over.