East Aurora Tomcats are getting reconnected with former classmates more easily than ever thanks to newer online resources.
Back in 2005 the Class of 1985 20 year reunion turned into a fairly small gathering when the organizers had a hard time locating everyone. Internet resources have changed vastly since then and now there are several easy ways to find others who attended East High. These will be a big help in planning this year's 25 year reunion. So far the organizers have had contact with about 120 of 380 on the class list. The email address for the Class of 1985 reunion is eastaurora.class85@att.net.
The web page www.easthighconnect.com has over 1200 members so far. The page offers many features such as an event calendar, groups, photos, and discussion boards. There are 30 groups, including groups for some class years as well as special interests such as Thespians. It is free and easy to join this web page and once there one can join a group for a class year or create a new one.
The District 131 homepage hosts the East Aurora Alumni Association page at http://www.d131.org/alumni.asp. This page offers a lot of information and provides the opportunity to buy EAHS alumni apparel.
Plus, "a large committee has contacts with many classmates and helps to get recent addresses. The EA Alumni Association has a 10,000-person database, but we have to rely on reunion groups to give us their reunion booklets. It is the only way we can keep our database in good shape. The alumni group has a guide for reunions available," according to John M. Roesch, vice president of the association.
Classmates.com has thousands of EAHS people listed and is in the process of changing policies to make it easier to connect there without paying the previously required annual fee
Facebook is considered by many to be the very best resource for finding old friends. On Facebook I'm friends with dozens of people that I met at Bardwell, Waldo, or East. I’ve recently enjoyed reminiscing with people who were good friends I’d lost touch with as well as with others whom I barely knew in school but have now found we have a lot in common due to sharing memories of some of the same people, places, and events.
Carol BulasCrowell Honkanen has found Facebook to be very useful, but somewhat limited as many of her classmates have not joined yet. She "had gathered e-mail addresses along the years, as I had coordinated our Class of 80's Silver 25th Reunion. It took lots of time and effort and networking with other classes, to find people. But, initially it was the website I had put out there http://65.108.233.221/EAHS that helped me to get in touch with people. Alumni still come in from that site and I lead them to Facebook. Of over thousands of e-mail addresses that I have, only a handful have connected on Facebook. So, we all still need to get our friends on-board."
One of my classmates, Esmeralda Zepeda Tellner, says that Facebook has helped her find many friends from East High, including me! She says "I think I can honestly say and I'm sure many people will agree that 20-25 years ago we had an awesome group of people we went to school with! I believe starting those friendships in grade school, junior high (whether you went to Waldo or Simmons), then EAHS, kind of gave us all that Red/Black Tomcat bond that we will always carry with us throughout our lives. I'm sure if you ask anyone about their high school relationships they will tell you the same. I know the friendships, memories, good times and yes some bad times we had will always be memorable. I honestly believe we had a special group of classmates in the 80's because EAHS was a mixture of races, cultures, color, and personalities and we all got along!"
I agree with Esmo and I look forward to getting together with even more Tomcats this year.
Friday, February 5, 2010
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