As director of Eastern Mennonite School\u2019s advancement team, I ponder the relevance of five-year class reunions. In the nearly 20 years that I\u2019ve worked with teams at EMHS, and earlier, Eastern Mennonite University, on homecoming planning, I\u2019ve seen a pattern. Or rather, a lack of a pattern. Each year, some classes have a large turn out and nurture life-long friendships; other classes have little to no participation.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had a love\/hate relationship with class reunions myself, skipping many, planning some. But the older I get, the more I see the value in nurturing relationships with people who knew you in your youth (oh, how we wish we could do things differently!), and have moved through life\u2019s stages from a shared vantage point.<\/p>\n
Homecoming 2021 reunions<\/strong> followed the same pattern: some strong and some with no participation. This year also saw a few unique additions. The class of 2011 met by Zoom, something we never thought to encourage before COVID-19. A small group of 2005 alumni gathered in Oregon to mark 15 years, and members of the class of \u201970 held their 50-year reunion one year late, since COVID prevented gathering last fall. Read a post on that gathering by Pat Hertzler here<\/a>. <\/p>\n The class of 2016<\/strong> held their first five-year reunion. This director shamelessly used her position to offer a little extra encouragement to the coordinator, daughter Leah Wenger. \u201cThis is a chance for you to set a tone for the next 50+ years!\u201d I encouraged her. \u201cStart something now that will last for the long haul.\u201d<\/p>\n Leah collaborated with Michael Bender and Olivia Smucker on the reunion, and decided it would be a success if people stayed at least two hours after the 4 p.m. meeting time.<\/p>\n A 10 p.m. text to me reporting that the party was still going strong, confirmed a successful first reunion. \u201cI had hoped we could get beyond, or work through, some of the inevitable hurts and disappointments that come with high school,\u201d she said. \u201cI think we were successful.\u201d<\/p>\n The gathering included a long visit with Paul Leaman<\/a>, head of school, and an opportunity to give feedback about how their experience may have been improved. \u201cThe conversation was delightful,\u201d Paul reported, wondering if the insightful questions may have been planted by me or co-worker Maria Archer<\/a>, K-8 principal who was having her own 40-year reunion, and whose daughter Gabby is also from the class of \u201916. No \u201cplanting\u201d necessary. These young adults care about the institution and want to see it improve for future generations. <\/p>\n The group also enjoyed reconnecting with Shannon Roth<\/a>, class sponsor and government teacher. Late evening conversation included reflections on how EMS does and could do more to equip people from varied political perspectives to have respectful dialogue. <\/p>\n \u201cI loved hearing from them about how they have actually taken things from my classes and implemented them in their own lives as voting citizens,\u201d said Roth. \u201cThey encouraged me and gave me ideas for how I can continually strengthen my teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n Class of \u201971<\/strong> \u201cI get so emotional every time the story comes up of the Doctorian family,\u201d wrote third brother Sam to class of \u201981 classmates. He writes that his grandfather was rescued by Mennonites during the Turkish massacre of the Armenians in 1915. Many years ago, his father told the story during a sermon in Washington State. \u201cAn old man stands up during his preaching and said, \u2018I was one of the three men that helped your father!'\u201d Sam wrote. \u201cMy dad stopped his preaching and started hugging and thanking this man!\u201d<\/p>\n
\nPaul Doctorian has come to every five-year reunion from California since graduating in 1971. He was the first of four brothers to come to EMHS from Lebanon, a school suggested to his pastor father by friend Myron Augsberger, then president of Eastern Mennonite College. <\/p>\n