Well, the day is almost here. Members of the 1962 class of Old Rochester Regional High School will soon be gathering to celebrate their graduation from ORR 50 years ago. Yikes, where did the time go? It really can’t be 50 years since we’ve seen each other. Well, not really. We did have a 15th and 30th year reunion, but this one is special. Our committee has been hard at work planning this reunion for over a year and before we know it, the weekend will be over and we’ll be left with the memories of a wonderful event and the passing around of telephone numbers and email addresses.
As we started planning our reunion, we knew we, in some way, wanted to give back to Old Rochester Regional for the start it gave us. We easily decided we wanted our class gift to be a monetary award to a 2012 graduating senior from ORR. As we reviewed the applicants for the class gift, we had a daunting task to choose just one winner. The outstanding senior chosen to receive the award was Mikayla Florio from Mattapoisett, who will continue her education at UMASS Dartmouth in the field of Nursing. We congratulate Mikayla and are sincerely pleased to award our 50th reunion class gift in the amount of $1,700 to her.
Over the past 50 years, Old Rochester has changed, the tri-town area has changed, the world in general has changed and, needless to say, members of the class of 1962 have had many changes in their lives. The only thing that remains constant is that we will forever be the first graduating class of Old Rochester Regional. It might not have been special to us on that day in June 1962 when 75 young people received their high school diplomas, but it certainly has special meaning to us today. We thank The Wanderer for giving us the opportunity to share some memories of our lives in another time.
As we gather at our reunion, the years will dissipate, stories will be told, and maybe embellished upon, but nonetheless, it will be an event to be remembered and hopefully we can all gather to do it all again in the near future. Here’s to old friends and new memories.