WHAT’S NEW WITH YOU???
The Bismarck High School Class of 1981 quarterly update
The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a positive, safe and supportive environment for all classmates in which we can share our personal lives. The staff reserves the right to publish only information that we feel is within the supportive spirit of this newsletter. Information which we feel is intended to be negative, class polarizing, mean-spirited will not be published at this site. That is not the avenue we want to take with this newsletter. The staff.
Volume 72, October, 2009
Hi everyone, as the days go by, we need to take a moment and pay respect to our friendships, our memories and our incredible ability to maintain a network of support for each other and for those who have left us to soon. As many of you know, we lost another classmate on Sept. 24th. Thus, we once again dedicate our newsletter to a fallen Demon, to my knowledge, Tom is the 25th classmate to pass away.
This past month has been tough, the loss of another classmate, the illnesses of Sherri and Megan, and the overall need to keep you all informed when my life is so busy. Some days I wonder, why do I do this? It is a lot of work, it is time consuming, but then, I read facebook and I see the caring messages to Megan, to Sherri, to others. I check out the Caring Bridge site for Megan and I know why, I do it because YOU CARE! Your messages for your classmates are heartwarming, thoughtful, full of hope, and then I realize why I do this, it is because I need to.
We have created an incredible network of strength and we need each other. You may not know it, but when your time comes, and you need hope, all you need to do is ask, and hope comes flowing your way! Over 30 messages have been sent to Megan alone, those are just the ones I now of! That doesn’t even begin to count the ones you have sent to Sheri and to everyone else who has needed a prayer or positive thought over the years. You make me proud, sometimes you bring a tear to my eye and when I am done reading those messages I know I need to get to work and write a newsletter. There is just to much to be done!
Time is passing way to fast, I hope that all of you with give serious consideration to attending the 30th reunion. I guarantee it may be the last time we see some of our classmates and dear friends. We are not getting younger, I think if you look in the mirror you will see that! Time is just not on our side. Since we met in 2001 at our 20th, we have lost seven classmates. Seems unreal, so many faces, so many memories, and sometimes it gives me pause to think that I will never see them again.
The planning has not yet begun for the 30th, but I hope you have already begun thinking and planning how you can attend. It is time to come home.
Sincerely,
Lauri,
Dedicated to the Memory of
Tom Handtmann
1962-2009
I remember that he had a green hat that he wore in 8th grade. Mr. Staven called him the little green sprout. Wendy Fuller Christy.
Short, funny, lots of hair, super nice guy, party animal!
FACEBOOK
Okay, you can now find
us on FACEBOOK at, Bismarck High School, Class of 1981.
Come and join the fun! We miss you!
GRADUATION CONGRATULATIONS
On August 22nd, Rolf Eggers received his Master's in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Mary with a 4.00 GPA.
(Hum, I wonder what kind of business he will open??? J))
HAPPY
ANNIVERSARY NEWS
Corrine McClean and Dale Zerr
celebrated their 25th Anniversary in early Sept.
The following is from Mark Olmsted, Class of 1980.
Could you temporarily have a post with a short message on your site about sending the link to people from our class that your class may still keep in touch with, whether they are siblings, cousins, spouses, old pals, or just some goof that puked in your car at the Desert on a foggy spring Saturday night. www.bismarckclassof80.com Our reunion is scheduled for June 11th and June 12th, 2010.
Don’t forget to check out our Kodak site. We always
have new photos to share.
Tom Gerhart has some new photos on the site, as does Brenda Buck
and Bob Raber.
THEATER TIME
Yes, my husband, Thomas Hulm, is playing the role of Mr. Mushnik, the shop owner in The Dakota Stage production of Little Shop of Horrors. Shows start Thursday, October 15th and run through the end of the month. It is a dark comedy/musical. Perfect for Tom and the Halloween season. I never realized what a labor of love it is to volunteer to be involved with the productions Dakota Stage puts on. I jokingly refer to myself as a Dakota Stage Widow since I see so little of my husband for about 3 months, but it’s worth it to watch the end results. I encourage anyone who’s looking for something fun and different to do in Bismarck to take in a show. You won’t regret it. Mary (Schmidt) Hulm
LIFE UPDATES
Here is the latest update on Sara Jensen-Fritz’s book!
My two colleagues and I won the (1st place) GOLD MEDAL Award in the category of
Children's Books from the Military Writer's Society of America (MWSA) for our
book, YOU AND YOUR MILITARY HERO. We are very excited! Two of us are heading
to Orlando on around Oct. 9th for the award ceremony and annual writer's
conference. We will be interviewed on radio and videotaped. The MWSA is doing
an exceptional job with PR and incredible world-wide promotion of all of the
winning books via web cast and other web activities. Very fun! ;-)
Other news/company projects:
We are scheduled to videotape our 'trailer" for our puppet character ed series
in mid November. This series will star our original puppets and curriculum for
K-5 kids. We will use the trailer and curriculum samples to promote to
corporations and solicit corporate funding. Anybody with connections to
corporations who would like to do for kids, let me know! ;-) All this in
our off time, as we all work full time day jobs! (It really is so fun that it
really doesn't seem like (more) work! )
Ola, Classmates!
I am teaching at Universidad Espiritu Santo in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in its International Studies Program. It is Ecuador´s winter here, equatorially, so nice cool evenings with blazing hot days are the norm. Also the norm are variously-sized iguanas roaming freely among us faculty from all over the world on this beautiful campus.
The Ecaudorean government began in 2001 to adopt our American system of justice (the avdersary system) as a replacement of its inquisatorial system (also known as the civil law system, not to be confused with the civil law category in the States which exists alongside the criminal category). I am honored and excited to be teaching law here, specifically, about our adversary system, which despite its flaws remains the fairest in the world. It is a plus for me to also able to conduct workshops here on communication techniques, deriving from my business, Rian Enterprises, Inc., website for which is: Rianenterprises.com.
One of these days I will get caught up on using Facebook but for now I am saying a hearty hello you all, and that I always read update emails from good old BHS!.
Best, Doug Rian (Arnts)
Corrine (McClean)
and Dale Zerr are happy to announce to engagement of their daughter Kayleigh.
Kayleigh is currently in med school and planning a wedding is going to be a
wonderful challenge for their whole family!
Sandy Gross
is a business owner in Bismarck. Her shop, Ambiance Home Décor, will be
featured in the “Inspired Women” Magazine Nov/Dec. issue. They are celebrating
holiday décor and her shop is serving a photo backdrop! Cool Sandy!
http://www.inspiredwomanonline.com/
The following was submitted by JoLyne (Wilson) Palumbo
It was been a rough few months for our classmates. How
wonderful though that we are able to pray for those who need some extra at this
time.
I have several special people in my life that are currently dealing with cancer
and other illnesses. It is never fun but hope, prayer, and a bit of laughter
sure helps.
On the lighter side, fall has arrived in Oklahoma with
cool evenings and turning leaves. The boys are in the middle of marching season
for band. They have
placed in the top 5 in the 2 contests in which they performed. We expect to do
well at the OBA state marching championship the end of the month.
The competitions are so creative both visually and musically. What a joy to
watch!
The following was submitted by Tom Gerhart
Doing well in
Kazakhstan. Working hard to get
Russian language skills up to speed. English is very rarely spoken here. It is a
lot easier to communicate by pointing & gesturing with Kazaks than it was with
Indians as the Kazaks are not always trying to cheat you & they are clean &
better looking as well.
Riding bike as a family in the evening & weekends on paved trails along the
river & in parks, avg 600+miles in the past 5 months. Swimming in the river with
the Kazaks, the water is a little greenish but figure if it is good enough for
the Kazaks it is good enough for us. Looking fwd to Ice Swimming as winter sets
in.
Rode bikes out about 10 miles to see where the river started. Swam in a neat
quarry like area & when we returned to our bikes some angry policia were
waiting. They only spoke Russian & I only speak English so I was finally able to
diffuse the situation by playing a DIP card. We all had a good laugh & happy
memories. In spring we went to see the Pink Flamingo nesting lake in
Kazakhstan
of all places.
Congrats to those Classmates who have Facebook accounts & what are the rest of you waiting for? Enjoy Tom
Sept 25th, was homecoming in our beloved demon land, back in the day it was tradition for the football team to buy corsages for each cheerleader. Well that tradition got left behind for some years until this year. That’s when someone from the class of 1981 football team bought 18 corsages for the Demon cheerleading team. As the Cheer coach said it was a tradition left behind because the girls do allot of jumps and slides, as not to have a pin stick them in the body. But each cheerleader wore them proudly during school and the tailgate party at the bowl. Hats off to class of 81, for we strike again, forever will we be a tradition and a voice of demon land. Todd Jueth
On the Road Again….
Lauri, Great idea of getting the face book page up and running. Really appreciate all the work you do for the Class of 1981. As a note, the Army is moving me to Yongsan (Seoul, South Korea) in November for 1 year unaccompanied tour. Soju and Gimche for all." David Becker
The following is from Wendy (Halpern) Tippett.
We have moved to Scottsdale
and Dave has taken on a big challenge with a young NHL team here- go Coyotes!
We also have our first grandchild on the way from our oldest Nicole and her
husband Tim - due in June! We are so excited!
MEDICAL UPDATES
Prayers and positive thoughts are needed for the following -
.