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.
Staten Island is the most rural of the five boroughs of New York City. Although still predominantly residential in nature, the borough has changed significantly since the opening of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in 1964.
If you are using a car or limousine service, Staten Island can be reached by bridge from Brooklyn and New Jersey, and by ferry from Manhattan. The ferry is the best option, as it passes by Liberty Island and offers stunning views of the Manhattan skyline and New York Harbor. The ferry is free and operates 24 hours a day out of Battery Park in Manhattan and St. George Terminal in Staten Island. If you are seasick or otherwise uncomfortable on ferries, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge connects Staten Island with Brooklyn, but you will incur a high toll (US$9.00). A more moderately priced option is to take an express bus from Manhattan to Staten Island. The fare payable with MetroCard is US$5.00. Change is also accepted, but carrying $5.00 in change (fare boxes ONLY accept change) is not a really good idea. The X1 and X10 routes run along Broadway in Manhattan. There is frequent service (about every 6-30 minutes) daily from early morning to past midnight.
The Staten Island Railway (operated by the MTA, which also runs the subways and the majority of buses) is somewhat a hybrid of a railroad and a subway line. While it uses subway-type equipment, it is legally a railroad, as defined by an FRA waiver. Fares are the same as a subway ride (US$2.00), and it runs 24 hours. Unlike the subway, it runs on a set schedule, from every 15 minutes during weekdays, to every hour overnight. Fares are collected only at St. George Ferry Terminal, leading many to exit at the penultimate stop, Tompkinsville, and walk up Bay Street a short distance to the ferry.
Source: Wikitravel.org - Staten Island, New York
*****
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)
