A magical quarter-century reconnection…
LHS Class of ’99,
Thank you all so much for last Saturday’s truly magical gathering! It was so wonderful to gather at this quarter-century milestone, and the din of excited reconnection that happily filled the Leaside Pub was deeply affirming.
As Safiya wrote, this was “warm cozy hug” we didn’t know we so needed. As Katrin revealed in follow-up, you too may have also been listening to a 90s soundtrack “oldies” this week (perhaps some Cranberries/Oasis/Alanis/The Hip on replay to the consternation of your Gen-Z colleagues?).
We were thrilled to hear the enthusiasm for a reunion redux sooner rather than later and will target a 30th anniversary gathering in 2029 (which, notably, will then in count of years be as far from graduation as we were then from the Apollo moon landing). For those not able to join us on this occasion, please know that you were missed and we will enthusiastically look forward to seeing you at the next class reunion!
In the meanwhile, we will keep our class website (https://www.leasidehighschool1999.ca/) and this email (reunion@leasidehighschool1999.ca) as a going concern for you to direct updates and any class outreach.
In particular:
Please continue to relay photos for us to add to the archive: we indeed have a backlog of contributions to post and will add any snapshots received to the website's “Memories” section.
Please also send in your “Where are they now?” updates: we hope these continue to provide glimpses of where life has taken our classmates and contacts for old friends, and we will post any submissions to the website’s “Where are they now?” section.
We have established a “In Memoriam” section for the website and included the tributes for departed classmates that we read at the reunion gathering.
There was also a request for our remarks at the reunion, and we have included these below.
As well, we have the attached image our class photo session for which we were thankful for many of you assembling. We were so grateful to John Yanoff for unexpectedly but so happily letting us access LHS for a swing around old haunts! You will find a reel of this nostalgically wide-eyed walkthrough on our class Instagram account.
If you have photos from Saturday’s gathering, please share these with our Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/leasidehighschool1999) or post these on your Instagram account with our class account tagged as a collaborator (https://www.instagram.com/leasidehighschool1999).
Finally, from your tickets to Saturday’s event, we have a surplus of $500, which we will be donating through the present LHS Student Council - happily with the annual LHS Charity Week coincidentally upcoming this week!
Again, so grateful for all you happily gathering together and the euphoria of reconnection after all these years. Looking forward to seeing you all again before too long and, until then, keep it real.
Your LHS ’99 Student Council
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GB: Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99: Wear sunscreen.
KG: Welcome Leaside alumni! We are so happy to be here with you tonight! Twenty-five years since we last walked the hallowed halls of Leaside High School – barely believable! So great to see Enrico Vicentini, Nick Mitchell, Don Hedrick. Staff and students alike were an eclectic group.
Back in November of 1999, we all sat together in the auditorium at our commencement with our ambitious dreams, our own secret apprehensions about the unknown and unique memories of our high school experiences.
Little things like hoping our friends shared our lunch period or that we had a common spare were big deals! Arriving at school to the surprise of a decorated locker on your birthday, or finding a heartfelt note written by an anonymous person were things that would brighten a day. Sports teams, clubs, semi-formals, field trips, using McDonald’s food trays to slide down snowy hills seems like distant memories now – fond ones that made me smile.
What were some of the highlights for you, Grant?
GB: Well, I remember teammates from the rugby pitch and fraternity on the football field - as well as that raucous rookie party that made the Toronto Star.
I remember our alma mater’s magna magistra Nancy Karandjas tutoring us of classics with many tales of teenagers timeless tendencies for sex and intoxicants.
I remember Nick Mitchell’s sage lessons in life and literature - and that time the office tried to page him at the pub.
I remember Irene Stickney starting and ending in one day a before-its-time avant-garde fashion trend.
I remember James Rutherford - and his ripped abdominals - winning the charity bachelor auction.
I remember Full Montying with the other student council boys - whom I will not hold to (or impose the rest of you) any reenactment tonight (ah, the things we got away with before Instagram).
But, as a kid like Katherine, from across the valley, I always remember my morning ride to Leaside. It’s been written that “One of the longest journeys in the world is the journey from Brooklyn to Manhattan”, and I always thought that of coming across the bridge.
It was coming to a community with a deep sense of community - a place where I now know how deeply privileged we were to learn and grow, with teachers and friends who mutually instilled what it was to be part of something - what I’ve best heard described as “the opposite of loneliness”.
For those of you with the fortune to be parents, I expect you likewise look back and - for all our teenage self-doubts and anxieties - hope that your children might have what we were so lucky to share.
KG: Now we all have a story… Tonight is a night to enjoy together and maybe even get a small glimpse of our journeys.
GB: We’re so grateful that you’ve all made time and, for many of you traveled some miles, to gather with us this evening for reconnection and catch-up. Foremost, we are so grateful for this chance to be in nostalgia and recollect those formative memories at which we were present together.
KG: We also want to tonight give tribute to those classmates who are no longer with us. We are aware of four class alumni - Gagan Sodhi, Karttik Shah, Ray Jarrett and Jeff Crichton - who have tragically departed and we’ve invited remarks to remember them each.
GB: Jeff’s parents, David and Betty, also honour us with their presence tonight and we are grateful to remember their incredible, earnest son.
(See posted memorial tributes)
GB: The privilege of knowing these folks gives perspective on that brief flicker for which we’ve fortune to be here.
And, as that “Wear Sunscreen” melody of our grad year also noted, “For the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.”
KG: And so thank you for those formative years we spent together and for being here tonight in nostalgic gathering.
GB: But trust us on the sunscreen.
