Nearly 80 former students, partners and teachers from Chatham High School’s Class of ’77 came together to celebrate the 40 year reunion held at Club Harrington.
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There were gasps of surprise, shrieks of delight and looks of shock as attendees greeted each other at the beginning of the evening, held on Saturday September 30.
Attendees came from far and wide including the former school dux deLancey Worthington who travelled from Melbourne, the high school captain from 1977 Carol Clayton-Vincent, Megan Thomas (Macinnis), Debra Brown (Spencer) all from Sydney, Peter Everingham from Townsville, Janelle Alexander (Bulley) and Kim Watts both from Muswellbrook and Nigel Thompson and John Taylor both from Goondiwindi.
The many local former students were represented by Ross Greenshields, Leon Hook, Paul Broadhurst, Tony Hinton, Robin Green, Peter Hayes, Evie Richardson (Unicomb), Cheryl Hardy, John Chick, Kim Hammond and Vicki Collier (Cook) among others.
A highlight of the evening was reminiscing with former teachers including David and Kerry Long, Bruce Field, Sue Edwards and Margaret Pryor.
A display of school memorabilia was a source of fascination for many especially Rosemary Kavanagh (Northam) and Michelle Schofield’s school “ports”.
Michelle’s school workbooks, needlework samples and artwork displays as well as boxes of Cuisenaire rods from her primary school days had many wondering where she managed to store this amazing treasure trove. A donation box at the event raised enough funds to defray costs with the remaining $395 being donated to Chatham High School.
The organisers Deb Nicholson (Holland), Josie Minett, Michelle Schofield, Lorraine Goldsmith and Fiona Gibson were thrilled with the large turn out and the buzz and excitement of the event. They will be catching their collective breath for some time before any discussion of another reunion. This was the fourth reunion the class has held. The 10th anniversary event was at Wingham, the 20th at Cundletown and the 30th at Old Bar.
“A lot of friendships have been re-established through the searching and invitation process”, organiser Fiona Gibson said.
“I left Taree in 1980 so the reunion was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with friends from a lifetime ago.’’