Class Reunion
Make the most of your class reunion
Planning a class reunion is a huge undertaking. With some simple strategizing, though, you can make it a much less labor-intensive experience and create a wonderful event that reunites old friends and helps everyone relive cherished memories of yesteryear.
Planning a High School Reunion
Putting together a high school class reunion is much easier when you draw inspiration from tried-and-true planning tips. Some helpful class reunion ideas to keep the organizing easy and help ensure your event enjoys an excellent turnout include:
- Plan at least a year in advance. Getting a high school reunion together takes a lot of time. People move; some attendees may have to make arrangements to travel halfway across the world to attend. Send the invitations far enough in advance to give everyone enough time to plan accordingly.
- Assemble a committee. This isn’t an undertaking to tackle on your own. Reunions for even the smallest of graduating classes will require a lot of intensive labor. Divide and conquer by divvying up the necessary tasks among a group of committed individuals.
- Dust off the yearbook. Don’t leave anyone out; go down the list of graduates and ask your school to provide listings of the last known address of each student on the invite list. Many times, family members are still in the area, and if the former student’s parents still live at the same address, they can forward your request to its intended recipient.
- Get online. Search for any students you can’t find through the school by using the Internet; the rise in popularity of social networking websites will help make it easier to track elusive people down.
- Find a place to hold the event. If you can’t host the event at your old school, search for ballrooms, auditoriums and other banquet halls in the city that might be appropriate for your reunion. Shop around for rates, and use low price quotes to haggle with managers of desirable spaces to try to get a better bargain.
Class Reunion Ideas
Whether the event is big or small, the worst thing that can happen at a high school reunion is boredom. Getting the party moving should be your top priority, especially since awkward silences are bound to happen in a group of people who haven’t seen each other in many years. Some class reunion planning ideas to keep the action going are:
- Hire a great DJ. Choose the best performer your budget allows for; if you like, you can request themed music that hearkens back to your school days.
- Plan games. Icebreaker games are fun and help people remember each other. If the group is large, break things up into smaller groups and switch things up so everyone interacts with everyone else.
- Decorate for memories. Put up poster-sized pictures of important events from the graduating class along with news and sports events that took place during the graduation year. Set up a table with yearbooks, pictures of teachers and other memorabilia from your class history.
- Get things moving. Put together a video or slideshow of events from your shared past and display it on a big screen for all to enjoy.
- Nobody leaves hungry. Make sure you hire a good caterer and provide an adequate range of different items to account for the varying tastes of the party guests; include vegetarian and vegan options as well.
