I often receive emails from former Saints about SAA reunions. To my knowledge, there have been few, and in my opinion, too few. Reason - although many would like to attend a reunion, folks are not inclined to organize a reunion.

In fact, organizing a reunion is not particularly difficult. Paulette Vardell organized an all-class reunion in 1998, and I organized another in 2000. Here are some things we learned:

    Publicity:

With the number of people on the Internet, it is relatively easy to publicize the existence of the event. Naturally, I could help you with this by announcing it on The Virtual SAA Site. An ad in the Aiken paper is good. Resultant word-of-mouth among classmates also occurs.

    Place:

I have received information from Stephen Mueller '79 at Rose Hill Estate, and Fairfield Inn & Suites concerning places to stay and places to host the event. In 2000, the event was hosted at St. Angela Hall on the campus of St. Mary's on York Street.

    Food & Drink:

For the 1998 and 2000 all-class reunions, we employed Sam Erb at the West Side Bowery to coordinate the refreshments, and we were very pleased.

    Time:

From surveys we took prior to both all-class reunions, we learned that the best time for most people to attend is during the summer. Children are off from school and a summer vacation can be arranged to include a trip to Aiken. Surprisingly, we learned that Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter would not work for most people, since this is primarily family time.

I am most willing to assist you in organizing a reunion, but I cannot be the prime mover. I live and work in Philadelphia during the school year, and I have business obligations overseas all summer.