High School Reunion Planning Tips and Ideas
So you've been crowned organizer of your high school class reunion. Sure is different from homecoming queen or king, isn't it? It's time to celebrate life's successes and renew old acquaintances. It's also time to start losing the pounds, covering the gray and planning a high school class reunion to remember.
High School Reunion Planning Tips:
Form a high school reunion committee. First try contacting the class officers from your year. Then find local classmates. Assign one person to keep track of the master list and update it as responses come in. Delegate other tasks such as securing the site, maintaining the budget, invitations, food, music and decorations to other committee members.
Develop a detailed budget. You'll need to figure out how much each attendee to your high school class reunion will pay in order to cover the venue deposit, printing and mailing of invitations, and long-distance phone calls.
Start sleuthing. Call your high school to ask if it has contact information. Use Web sites like Classmates.com, Reunion.com and Switchboard.com. Send out an SOS e-mail message asking for the whereabouts of missing classmates. Check phone books on the Web or in libraries. Call local alumni from other classes. Check your high school yearbook for people's full and maiden names.
Shop for a venue for your high school class reunion. Find out if a favorite hangout from back then is still operating. Contact clubs or banquet halls. Ask what's included and shop around. Inquire about discounted rates at hotels for families of alumni attending the reunion.
Select a date for your high school class reunion. Start publicizing the reunion as early as possible so attendees can make travel plans. Thanksgiving and summer reunions allow alumni to plan their vacations accordingly.
Decide how your high school class reunion event will be structured. It can be anything from a one-night banquet to a weekend-long event. Some classes host an informal cocktail party on Friday night, a sit-down dinner on Saturday night, and a Sunday family barbecue.
Set up an account at a bank or credit union with two people required to sign for transactions. If you have a large number of attendees or an expensive high school class reunion paid for in installments - a grand cruise or limousine services, for instance - this is a must.
Decide to go with a band or a DJ, then shop around and book one for your high school class reunion. If you recall a good high-school band, ask those alumni if they'll play a couple of tunes.
Ask classmates for information about their lives (including contact information). Compile it all into a booklet and mail this out to alumni before your high school class reunion date so they can be ready to pounce on old friends as soon as they walk through the door.
Overall High School Reunion Planning Ideas:
Invite a mystery guest - maybe a student who became a celebrity, or a stand-out teacher.
Hire a professional high school reunion planning consultant who can take your event every step of the way, from locating classmates to contacting local media to hiring the band. Contact the National Association of Reunion Managers at Reunions.com.
Make your high school reunion invitations fun, incorporating your school mascot or prom song. (Still know all the lyrics to Hotel California, don't you?)
Create collages from your high school yearbook photos and newspaper articles (on microfiche at your library) to transport classmates back in time.
Overall High School Reunion Planning Warnings:
Be prepared to recognize your friends' parents. That's right - your friends may now look exactly like their parents did when you were in high school. Don't laugh, pal - you're in the same boat.
The Bronx is the only New York borough on the mainland of the United States. It was originally part of Westchester County but was gradually annexed by New York City. The Bronx was completely incorporated into New York City in 1898.
The Bronx has a strong character all its own. It is the birthplace of hip hop music, one of the most important truly American musical genres, and home to one of the country's most storied professional baseball teams, the New York Yankees, also known as the "Bronx Bombers." Many ethnic groups have called the Bronx home over the years. Arthur Avenue is still a center of Italian American culture in New York, and many claim it has a more authentic feel than Manhattan's Little Italy. The South Bronx is a center of Puerto Rican culture and life, with a growing Mexican community as well. University Heights and Morris Heights are largely Dominican neighborhoods.
While the southern and central Bronx is mostly comprised of apartment buildings and densely built, the physical environment of the Bronx is much more varied than what is normally portrayed in the popular media. For instance, Riverdale is a residential neighborhood of mostly detached single family homes located on bluffs overlooking the Hudson River. It looks more like a quiet suburb than the "big bad" Bronx. Bronx Park and Van Cortlandt Park are two large and notably tranquil green spaces. City Island, located in Long Island Sound but officially part of the Bronx, reminds people more of a small New England fishing village and is worth a visit.
The Bronx has a reputation as an area of rundown apartment buildings and high crime that is not entirely undeserved but rather dated. But all of these problems have waned in recent years, and indeed, as the South Bronx gentrifies, longtime residents are afraid they may soon be priced out of their neighborhood. While you should exercise precautions if visiting some of the more troubled neighborhoods, dont take the outsiders' word for it when it comes to the Bronx -- explore it and decide for yourself.
One can get into the Bronx from Manhattan and other boroughs (except Staten Island) easily by taking any of several subway lines or by using a limousine service Bronx-style. The Harlem and Hudson Lines of the Metro North commuter railway, which originate in Grand Central Terminal and stop in Harlem at 125 St. and Park Av., also traverse the Bronx, with various stops including Botanic Garden, next to the New York Botanic Garden. Local MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) bus connections with Upper Manhattan and parts of Queens also exist. It is possible to travel across one of the many bridges from Manhattan or the three bridges from Queens, and points north are accessible via several highways. Note that taxis from Midtown or Lower Manhattan can be very expensive, which makes it more worth your money to ride a limousine service Bronx-fashion to drive you around the area. Finally, pedestrians can cross any of the bridges that connect Manhattan with the Bronx.
The Bronx has limited subway coverage, with the subway lines designed more for access to Manhattan than cross-town travel in the Bronx, and many of its bus lines are slow and overcrowded at times. Many people who need flexibility in getting across the Bronx drive; however, the notorious overcrowding on the Cross-Bronx Expressway sometimes reduces such cross-town travel to a standstill, which makes a ride in a limousine a better and more comfortable prospect. In general, with sufficient planning and time, you can enjoy the borough through a combination of these means or you can go by only one, a limousine service at the Bronx.
Source: Wikitravel.org - Bronx, New York
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Why use a limousine service in New York?
A limousine service can easily be substituted for a car service. The comfort and safety of having a chauffeur-driven limousine service is more valuable when traveling in and around New York. There are practically hundreds of limousine services in New York.
Look up other areas covered by New York NY Limo limousine services:
Limousine Service (Bronx) Limousine Service (Brooklyn) Limousine Service (Long Island) - Limousine Service (Manhattan) Limousine Service (Queens) Limousine Service (Staten Island) Limousine Service (New York)
