Hello Classmates!

I'm sure that you are looking forward to our 35th Utica High School Class Reunion as much as I am.  Thanks to a dedicated few, our class has held a reunion every 5 years, just as our class vote decided way back in 1971.

For me, every day life and the ensuing "dramas" have somehow keep me from attending those anticipated reunions, so I'm ashamed to admit that I've only attended 1 of the last 5 reunions.  That is pretty poor.

Back in February, Jean Stewart got in touch with me through Classmates.com because my name was on a "missing list".  I didn't know that I was missing, however it was good to be found!

Through our emails, Jean gave me the web address of The Original Utica High School Class of 1971 website.  It was fun to see pictures from our 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th and 30th reunions.  Great job of saving and assembling those memories!

However several things has stuck out in my mind.  First only 26 of 153 graduates from the Utica High School Class of 1971 are registered on Classmates.com.  Come on guys, it is FREE, that is pretty pitiful given this is the largest Internet database of it's kind.

Second, it seems from looking at the pictures that the number of classmates attending the reunions keep dwindling.  I'm not throwing any stones here boys and girls, since I'm guilty myself, but we are not dong a very good job of keeping in touch with each other.

This lead to the following conclusion.  Many of you probably won't be attending this year's reunion and even if I get my rear in gear, I'm going to miss finding out about what you've been up to for the last 35 years.

Thus a brain storm was born!  What if I could put together a DVD with a minute of audio and video from everyone.  That sounded like an ambitious project just from the aspect of shipping back and forth pictures, tapes and disks.

Brain storm #2, I could edit together clips to make 1-minute MPEG movies from voicemails, JPEG pictures, webcam WMF  videos and store all of them on a server from where our class could download and view clips from material submitted by Bill, Jean, John ... you get the idea.

So guys and gals, the ball is in your court.  Start thinking about what you want to tell the rest of our class.  Then pick up the phone, call and leave a 1-minute greeting.  I'm sure everyone can find something to say for just one minute.

Do you have a webcam?  Why not use it to record a video message.  Don't worry about making it perfect.  I can edit out the mistakes.  Don't have a webcam ... what about your neighbor or your friend.  It will only take a couple of minutes and we all will all get a kick out of hearing from you.

Got a digital camera?  Take a picture of yourself, you can always use a mirror and make it a self portrait.  Got pictures of the kids, car of your dreams, beautiful home, pet that is like a child?  Send me snapshots of those great memories with a short caption.

I'll edit your voice messages, pictures and videos together.  Don't have a digital camera?  Go see your neighbor or friend.   Still shooting film?  Get out the scanner and send me a current picture and 9 more favorite pictures.

As soon as I get the stuff edited, I'll send you a link so you can preview video before it gets posted for everyone to see.

O.K. everyone.  You've got the general idea.  Tell everyone you know from the Utica High School Class of 1971.  Tell their brothers and sisters.  Tell there mothers and dads.  Let's at least get a voice message from everyone in the Class of '71.

I would like to get all submissions by June 1st.  That way I can get it all edited and posted by August.  If we get a good response, I'll even try to get that DVD assembled, so if you don't want to download all the clips (I hear some people still have dialup!) you will be able to just pop the DVD into your player and see the whole thing.

Remember ... tell everyone to come to UHS-Class71.com and see the Class Video Greetings!

Sincerely,

Greg White