NHS 72 – News #7

Springfield North High Class of 72
October 19, 2021
50th Reunion Planning Meeting

News - NHS 72

Class of 1972 50th Reunion Planning we had a Zoom reunion committee meeting on Tuesday October 19, 2021. In no particular order those in attendance were:

  • Larry Ricketts
  • Joan Schneider
  • Joyce Ware-Brannick
  • Sherry Brumage-Payne
  • Paul Numbers
  • Darrel Baker

The Venue and Rooms


Mark Your Calendar! The date for the reunion is August 20, 2022. The Venue is The Courtyard by Marriott. It is one of the nicest in Springfield! It is downtown and in walking distance to Mother Stewarts Brewery and the Springfield CoHatch. There are also a multitude of restaurants all within walking distance. So far, we have 124 people that are planning to attend. We hope to have twice that number by 2022!

We also have a block of rooms that are ready to reserve. We have a special rate for the following days:

August 19, 2022
August 20, 2022
August 21, 2022

  • Make sure you select the dates before you check availability.
  • If you would like to add days on either end, we can make that happen, but I will need to call our event coordinator. Just let me know.
  • We had an issue with our block of rooms. We booked all of them!
  • I called the Marriott and they added more rooms. If you have a problem please let me know!

Here is the link


The Schedule so far…

Friday Night – Larry Ricketts found out that the downtown area may be hosting a Jazz festival the same weekend as the reunion. The CoHatch and Mother Stewarts Friday night event could be replaced by the Jazz Festival. This would be great to have a professional Jazz festival in the downtown area. However, it could cause an issue for hotel reservations. So, if you are planning to get a room you might consider making your reservations.

The original plans for Friday evening, if the Jazz festival does not happen, we will do the meet and greet at Mother Stewarts Brewery. Mother Stewarts has a good variety of beer and wine. Everything downtown is within walking distance from the Marriott.

Saturday Night – Reunion at the Marriott. This is the main event. The Marriott will be providing the venue, they will also be providing dinner and a bartender in the ballroom.

The music will be provided by DJ Mike Stooksberry. He will provide musical entertainment for our August 20th main event. He is a ’77 North High School graduate. Mike has provided musical entertainment in the Springfield area for over 20 years. He has played music for events ranging from weddings to car cruise ins, using many genres of music designed to suit the mood and various activities during the event. The music will begin with the first “hellos” until…


Pricing and Budget

Paul Numbers is working on a spreadsheet for the expenses, this includes all the things that we are planning:

  • Conference room at the Marriott for the reunion.
  • Dinner at the Marriott the night of the reunion.
  • Friday at the Cohatch
  • DJ Music for the evening of the reunion
  • Memorial Tree and Plaque
  • Digital Bio Book
  • Photo Booth

With the things that we have planned, it looks like we are planning on a $60 ticket price. This price is considering we have 112 people attending.

We have had several people prepay and a donation from Peter Stathopoulos. Thanks to all! It really helps to cover expenses.

If you would like to prepay for your tickets or make a donation, please send your checks to Larry Ricketts. Larry’s address was sent out in the first mailing we did. If you need Larry’s address, please contact me.

You can make the checks Payable to either Larry Ricketts or Class of 72 Reunion.


Here are the things we are working on.


The Memorial Tree

No changes on this from last meeting. Gayla Hypes Is researching the purchase and planting our memorial tree. The location will be on the new Springfield High School property. Gayla has reached out to Patrick Smith. He is the principal at Springfield High School, regarding a Memorial Tree for our 1972 classmates who have departed this earth. Mr. Smith has given the OK to plant the tree on the property. The location and marker will be determined closer to the time of planting.

Digital Bio Book

No changes on this from last meeting. Christy Yaw-Hart is coordinating this. I think this will be a great idea. Even if you are not going to attend the reunion, we would love to have your input. It would be great to be able to read something about all our classmates. Keep an eye on this section so we can get your input.

Photo Booth

Joan Schneider is researching for a photo booth vendor. One of the vendors is Fun Event Selfies: They will be available for 3 hours, they provide staff, camera, open-air backdrop, will incorporate our logo, 4″x6″ framed photo with 1-3 people in the photo. Timri will provide an online gallery and a flash drive of all the photos. She has 6 custom backgrounds to pick from. Includes props and will add more depending on the pandemic. We can text, tweet, or email our photos that are uploaded from the flash drive.

Finding Our Missing Classmates

We are trying to reach all our classmates. This is our 50th reunion and is a big one! Please reach out to your contact list. Feel free share my contact information with them. They can also reach me through this site. We can make this the largest reunion yet. We are doing internet searches looking for information and we are finding some new information.

This site DOES NOT contain or store any of your personal information, well, other than your name.

Classmates we have found

  • 162 Total Classmates that have verified their information or were verified through Facebook
  • 5 of our classmates have requested a Do Not Contact Status
  • 61 of our classmates are Deceased.
  • 228 Classmates have been located. We have a long way to go!

We really need your help getting this done. If you have not already, go to the classmates list. Please make sure your name is spelled correctly and is in the correct color (we all know I don’t make mistakes LOL).

If you would please contact all the Classmates in your address book and make sure we have their current information

If you have not done these things, please click the button. Please compare your contacts to our list, feel free to share my information with them.


Extras

These are things to check out in and around Springfield while you are home. Make sure you read Gene Barnett’s email at the end of this section.

Walking Tours – Email from Gene Barnett

Walking tours are set up every year by the Westcott House’s Executive Director Marta Wojcik and her husband historian Kevin Rose. The home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1906, built for $15,000.00 and finished in 1908.

Burton Westcott built custom touring cars in Springfield that sold from $2,000 to $3,000 each. There is a Westcott car in the Heritage Center downtown in the farmers market/city building built in 1890 for $258,000.

There will be a couple of downtown tours possibly three over the summer of 2022. The tours are very interesting and well worth your time.

The Westcott House in Springfield is Frank Lloyd Wright’s only Prairie home located in Ohio. There are still over 440 homes in the U.S that Wright designed.

The Westcott House is well worth touring and now that we are “Seniors” we save $3.00 on admission for the 1.5 hour tour. Only $15.00 per person.

Actually, I could conduct the tours because I have been a docent since the Westcott House opened in October 2005.
https://www.westcotthouse.org

Very Respectfully,
Gene Barnett
North High School Class of 1972.