January 16, 2021
Dear Classmates of the Cromwell High School Class of 1971 and our Nathaniel White Middle School classmates who graduated from Mercy, Xavier, and Vinal Tech,
Happy 2021! We hope this email finds you and yours well in the face of the Covid pandemic. As you know, 2021 will mark the 50th anniversary of our graduation from Cromwell High School. Several of us, including Dorothy Varrichio (Arpino), Sib Amenta and me, thought we would see if there was interest from our classmates to celebrate the event. This would be our first reunion in 20 years. Dorothy did a remarkable job on that one in 2001. We will lean heavily on Dorothy's guidance and experience to also make this a memorable event. We are also inviting those students who graduated from Nathaniel White Middle School with us, who then went on to Xavier, Mercy, or Vinal Tech.
The most difficult aspect of these types of efforts is contacting classmates, who are now living throughout the country. We began this effort by posting a notification on the CHS website, CHS Facebook page, and Classmates.com to determine the interest is having this event. Not surprisingly, the most effective methods of contact have been by word of mouth and individual’s social media contacts. To this point we are very encouraged with the response from these various sources.
We have heard from those we’ve spoken with that there is great concern about this terrible pandemic. All of us share those concerns, and though we are hoping to get together next year in the early fall (late September/early October), we must make contingency plans. Hopefully, the vaccines, will be effective to the point of making an in-person, indoor event possible. If a 2021 date is not possible due to the pandemic, we will postpone it to the following spring of 2022. Again, we hope this is not necessary, but we will be prepared to do so.
Since I am not on Facebook or other social media platforms, I will communicate via email and submit the pertinent information on the reunion for posting on the
"Cromwell School System Website" (Cromwell.K12.CT.US). Sib and Dorothy will post that same information on their Facebook pages.
To keep you up to date, we are providing the information that we have as of January 16, 2021.
1) As stated, we are continuing our efforts to communicate with as many classmates as possible before we begin making definitive plans. Currently, we have over 45 names of our classmates and non-CHS graduates from the above-listed schools. These names again have come from several of us who had some contacts either personally or via social media. Of those 45, 16 have provided their email address, cell phone and other contact information. Some have provided names of other individuals with whom they remain in contact totaling the above-noted 45 names. We are hoping those remaining individuals known to some of us on this email send their contact information. We are asking that you provide the emails of those individuals, with their permission, or just send them my email (amentapeter040@gmail.com) so that we can determine their interest. If you have contact with anyone else from the class whether or not you believe they were contacted on the reunion, please send them my email. There are about 40 individuals remaining on that list. I will be happy to provide those names individually to you if asked. Over communication is better than lack of communication in these types of efforts.
2) We are planning a date in the fall (late September or early October), but further details, such as place and time, will be forthcoming once we get a number of classmates who wish to attend along with significant others.
3) We are preparing a Power point slide loop of those days back at CHS. We would ask that if you have any photos from that time of the school or school events and would be willing to include them in that loop, please send them to me electronically (via cell or email and no originals please). To this point we have been using photos from the yearbook, photos from our personal collections, and those available from the internet. We would play that on a loop in a portion of the room during the event.
3) We are also asking those of you who would like to create a one slide collage of the last 50 years of your lives to include in the Power point loop. Please send it to me electronically at my email listed above email. We will be happy to provide a PDF of the entire loop after the event. We will also add photos from the reunion itself with your permission for its final distribution after the event.
4) Several of you have indicated a willingness to help with the planning of the reunion. We will take you up on that offer. We recognize that the distance many of us live from the Cromwell/Middletown area makes it a challenge, but we're all used to working remotely. The most valuable task at hand is communication with other classmates.
5) I also received an email from David Butler from the class of ’70. They are floating the idea of having a joint party the night before they celebrate their now pandemic delayed 50th reunion. We are certainly grateful for the invitation to that combined event, but it does present some timing issues. We have chosen, as has the class of 70, to focus our efforts on having our own 50th reunion. Nevertheless, if they would like to have such a get together, we will be happy to send out the information so each person can make their own decision if they would like to attend both.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at my email address or on my cell (609-220-2107). It’s been fun catching up with a number of the members of the Class of 1971 by phone and email. In summary, let’s get in touch with all our classmates.
Here's to a much better 2021and the great CHS Class of 1971.
Peter Amenta
amentapeter040@gmail.com
609-220-2107