Reuniting the classes
All School Reunion gathers about 300 Garrison High School alumni
By JAMES C. FALCON
editors@bhgnews.com
Main Street was lined with residents, both past and present, Saturday as the All School Reunion parade floated by.
There, it rained candy, rather than precipitation, as floats representing local community organizations, businesses and different classes, traveled down Main Street.
The parade was one of the several activities held during the Garrison All School Reunion which began Thursday and ended Sunday.
Students who graduated from Garrison High School from the 1940s to the present participated in the reunion, although the students who graduated during the seventies appeared to make up the lion’s share of the alumni.
Bree Diffley, a member of the All School Reunion committee, guesses that almost 300 alumni attended the festivities over the weekend.
“We had a great turnout and a great time,” she said. “The committee appreciates everyone’s support.”
A total of 153 individual alumni and 138 couple alumnus registered, which Diffley classified as “a pretty good turnout.”
In terms of per-registration, we were a little higher (than the last reunion),” Diffley said, noting that the number of alumni who preregistered is “dependent on the decade.”
There were also some of the younger alumni who didn’t register, she noted, adding that an alumni book with contact information — one of the items in the registration packet — wasn’t a necessity for the younger alumni.
“If we want to stay in contact, we have,” she said, noting that through social media, the younger generations have done better in keeping in touch. “My decade is still branching out and really didn’t make it too far (out of Garrison) yet. We all know where we are.”
Of the alumni, Diffley said there was “a decent number” that lived out of state, including “a few from Arizona” as well as Florida and California, the furthest alumni traveled.
“There were also a fair amount who are still in the state,” Diffley said. “I’d say a lot of them are going to be in the state.”
