Who Did What

WHO’S DOING WHAT

 

      There are many people working on your 50^th reunion, not just in KansasCity but in Tucson and Chicago, Seattle and Denver and manyother cities across the country.  Some have made calls, some wrote letters/emails and others are working on the actual reunion events, while Mickey Anderson keeps all the lists of names, addresses and emails. He’s been doing that since the 10^th reunion and has quite the files! Carol Radetsky wrote up the “Things to do in KC” tab for the out-of-towners and Sharon Traxler has taken on the huge job of putting together our 50^th Reunion Book along with creating the Saturday night décor.  Below are details of what’s going on, who’s taken charge and who’s helping do what.

 

 Carl Helmstetter:          Our “Charles in Charge,” he started the  website, got the ball rolling and held the Reunion  Committee meetings at his home.

 

Steve Melcher:               Our whip-cracker and general go-to guy, he’s organizing the Reunion Book with Sharon,picking the music with Galley, obsessing about nametags, collecting the money and still barking orders.

 

Barbara Molotsky           The “voice” of the reunion and all-around Pleader for Profiles and checks, she keeps classmates up to date on all Reunion details and takes orders from Steve.

 

Felis Sebert                    The Events Maven, she jumped in and booked our Friday and Saturday night venues before the Committee could spell R_E_U_N_I_O_N.  She’s also responsible for those discounted Plaza-area hotel rooms you out-of-towners are hopefully booking.

 

Mickey Anderson            The Keeper of the Lists, he’s been gathering and updating Southwest ’61 classmates’ addresses, phone numbers and now, email addresses for over 40 years.  He has a thick file of high school memorabilia including our Commencement program from 1961.

 

Bob Woodling et al        Headed our team of Super Sleuths which found all but 8 of our 410 classmates.  Barbie Alport and Herb Simon, helped by Mickey Anderson found most of the Kansas City people through phone calls, relatives and grocery store run-ins.  Bob dug into parents’ death records to find married names of female classmates, names of offspring.  He, Barbie and Herb also found all those obits that make up our Memorials pages.

Jon (aka Ron) Frey        Our WebMaster extraordinaire, he made the Reunion website attractive and viable, added the music (and changes it on a regular basis), gets the Sachem photos up, reports to us on website traffic (we know the “Look Who’s Coming” list is the most visited) and serves as our all-around tech guru, of which he is in a class by himself.

 

Barbara Bell                   Those orange envelopes you get in the mail, those corrected spellings you see on your profile are thanks to her.  She found the orange stationery, she prints the labels, stuffs the envelopes puts on the stamps. She also heads up the editing team of Pam Latshaw, Ann Morgan and Sharon Edwards, all of whom make your profiles look worthy of an “E” grade..

Sharon Traxler             
We  are so lucky to have this superb graphics designer in our class who volunteered to produce our Reunion Book!  Steve Melcher – once a Trail editor, always .  . . – is serving as editor of the book while Jon/Ron Frey is handling the technical side of getting your profiles off the website and into the book. Sharon also printed all the nametags and created the centerpieces for the Saturday evening event.  We owe her.

Patty Eisberg                Resurrecting her duties as producer/director of all our Southwest productions (Redskin Revels, senior play, etc.), Patty is creating a Tony-worthy entertainment for Saturday night that is guaranteed to entertain and revive memories.

 

Barbie Alport et al        After finding more than half our Kansas City classmates and digging up obits of lost Indians for the website, she then took charge of our Saturday morning Pancake Breakfast. She enlisted Pam Latshaw to secure the TeePee Town location (now part of St. Andrews Church)to make the morning truly memorable, contracted the caterer, Kansas City’s foremost pancake chef and put together a team of volunteers to set up and clean up.

 T.D. Brous                   Against all odds, considering the fluctuating status of our old alma mater, he used his contacts on the School Board and pulled strings to get us a tour of Southwest.  Not sure what we’ll find on the inside but we’ll be free to roam the halls, look for lockers and search out favorite spots. 

 

Barbara Finkel              Want all your high school memories on one CD?  That’s what Barbara Finkel is producing and it will be chock full of old photos, Sachem pages and special moments.  It will "premier" at the dinner dance on Saturday night and will be available for purchase. So bring your checkbooks.

 

 

Retha Goldman             If you want to know how your Sachem photo suddenly appeared on your website profile, ask Retha Goldman who sat at her computer in Phoenix scanning them in. She was later joined by Ron Frey who, when he wasn’t changing music or monitoring web traffic, also scanned photos.
 

Big Thanks also to Barbara Ulmer who is coordinating our Friday and Saturday night volunteers, Lisa Lanner, helping Steve Melcher keep track of money and attendees, and Tom Galley , Chuck Page, Carl Helmstetter and Mickey Anderson who each contributed from their ersonal music collections and memories to create our 60's dance music for Saturday night. 

Hotel Options for Returning Classmates:

Marriott Courtyard Inn - $119 per night
www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/mcicp-courtyard-kansas-city-country-club-plaza/


Plaza Holiday Inn - $102 per night
www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/kansas%20city/mkcoe/hoteldetail

Above are links to the Marriott Courtyard on the Plaza and The Holiday Inn on the Plaza. The links automatically put our group code in the reservation area, so the rate will be entered automatically.

The Marriott Courtyard group rate for Sept 23 and 24 is $119.00 (per night). If you are coming in early, please call Kim McNeil at 816-285-9764 to arrange.

The Holiday Inn group rate for Sept 23 and 24 is $102.00 (per night)

Plaza Holiday Inn