saguenay valley students association: Test 1

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PRESIDENT'S COMMENTS

June ...aaahhh... the last day of school; the grad dance is behind us waaay behind us, and we are now anxiously waiting for the summer break. In the meantime one occasionally thinks about the past years and wonders what we really learned, but this year is different ! We have made a lot of new / old friends and are now impatiently waiting to get together again.

Of course I speak of the upcoming Homecoming in August of 2002. Much more about that elsewhere in this issue.

While on the subject of issues, this is the second issue of the Arvida Saguenay Valley Students Association newsletter, this one under the very able direction of Judy McLeod Preston. I am sure you can see how far we have progressed since the first edition last March. My apologies to those whose names and pictures were switched at the printers. I know we have all changed but some of you really went all out in your new look and identity.

As usual with all good things, this association prospers due to the hard work and ingenuity of Ed Uhlen, Cliff Boland and the other directors as well as the excellent chairperson for the 2002 bash Yolanda Fountain Bilodeau, the afore mentioned Judy McLeod Preston and the 100 of our former classmates who have joined the association and are in good standing with their dues fully paid. All of us together have accomplished great things in the last year and for this we are justifiably proud.

Coming up is the launch of our website. It is under construction now and I am awaiting some graphics. I expect it to take a few months so be patient

Also of course is the Homecoming in 2002. Remember that you must be a member of the ASVSA to attend and to use the mailing list and receive newsletters. Complete the enclosed application, attach your cheque right away. We do not want to leave anyone out in the cold.

Have a great summer.

John

Arvida Saguenay Valley Students Association

HOW IT ALL GOT STARTED - ED UHLEN July 2001

There are a number of stories making the rounds as to how this thing got going. The official version is this. Toppy Campbell and I were out fishing on the White River in Arkansas, and talking about our school days as guys our age are wont to do, and we, through our conversations touched on the fact that a certain number of our friends had passed away. Since I had been a cancer patient who miraculously recovered, I thought there was no time like right now to start getting in touch and revisiting old friends from our schooldays. I had, up to that time, been reluctant to get on e-mail as I used it at work and was known around the place as Mr.e-mail.

However, I did get started by contacting George Calder and Frank Farmer, who responded and gave me Carole Santoni's email address. From here things started to accelerate quite rapidly. Carole had been talking to Isabel MacKay about a conversation between Isabel and Jean Gordon regarding a get-together dinner with classmates. From here things happened very quickly with Ken Farmer now into the fray asking for addresses for his 1953 classmates, and me hitting Canada 411 with a vengeance and really affecting Bell shares on the TSE with my long distance calls all over the country.

John Mason joined in and came up with a bunch. Carole gave us the Santoni clan and many more. Veronica gave me pages of names. Jane Edwards, Barb Beckett, Jim Boland , Max Hahto Kay Woodwark,and Judy Mason Flannery all chipped in. Roger Fountain gave me the list of a previous SVHS reunion. Jean Gordon gave me the Gordon clan in kilts and more. In short everyone at some time gave me addresses or leads. Lindsay and Ray Finney, and Jimmy Riddell helped out with the earlier grads. Ron Dyck constantly sent me names and kept me laughing with his wry sense of humour, and I talked on the phone to people from everywhere. It was a marvelous experience.

And of course there was John Mason who stayed awake at night dreaming of things to keep me busy. It is John's vocation in life to make sure I am not idle and to give my life a sense of purpose. Cliff Boland keeps me reasonably sane, and calm. Nothing upsets Cliff.

John was the first guy, way back when, who had talked about a reunion, and I did not have the time to do anything about it. At this point I knew that it had progressed far beyond the classmate thing and that I was going to be in it for the long, rather than the short run. John was the guy who was going to have to be the general, and keep us on course. I told John he was going to have to head up this thing and run the show while I got the names and addresses. We eventually got Isabel and Jean and Veronica Boland and others involved in our so-called Montreal get-together and it became our departure point.

By this time I had talked to Cliff Boland and he was a big help initially, as he is today, and we got going. There have been many people, who through a great deal of effort, have given me many names and addresses or at least enough of a lead to find people and I thank them all from the bottom of my heart. John is, and will be the core of this thing. He is the most organized and efficient guy we all knew. In high school he was the guy who organized everything, and ran it, from the hockey team, to the yearbook, to the dances. He will do the same thing with this organization.

That's how it got started and through the first five months many people rose to the occasion to help out. Many more people will have to step forward and get us names and addresses if we are to continue to grow. This is the reason for the newsletter, and any future developments will have to come from all of us. None of us can do this alone.

So we thank you for your cooperation to date and ask for your help for the future.

There remains much work to be done to find everyone possible. The list currently shows about 600 folks of whom we have thought. Yolanda has been busy in the school archives and come up with a list of 1200 names of students who attended Arvida High between 1926 and 1962. We have e-mail or postal addresses for some 350 people. Mathematically that leaves us with a great deal of work to do.

We thank Yolanda Fountain for the huge amount of work to compile this list and hope to be able to find most of them.

We will be contacting many organizations and establishments but any leads will help.

Thanks, ED

Arvida Saguenay Valley Students Association

saguenay valley students association

Test 1

NEWSLETTERS

Are you planning to attend Reunion 2009?

PRESIDENT'S COMMENTS

HOW IT ALL GOT STARTED - ED UHLEN July 2001