There's a big party happening in Thompson this July, and if you graduated from R.D. Parker Collegiate in 1979, you're invited.
You're also invited if you have a friend who graduated that year.
Or if you just want to have some fun.
"We're calling it 'Class of '79 and Friends'," explains Debbie Doucet, who sits on the reunion organizing committee and did in fact graduate that year. "It's not just for graduates."
The reunion - which is happening this year because the 1979 grads are turning 50 - will take place over the Canada Day long weekend, and the itinerary has for the most part already been laid out.
"There might be some people coming in early, on Thursday, so we might try and get some events for Friday," says Doucet. "Some people have thought maybe we'll go to the beef cart at Trapper's."
The weekend will really kick off Friday night, with registration at Bankside Billiards.
"I spoke to Dan Audet at Bankside, and he's a past R.D. Parker student too - he knows a lot of the people in our class, so he was willing to set up a section for us at Bankside," says Doucet, adding that she was hoping registration could be in the Bankside area because it meant a short walk over to MacLean Park to watch the city's Canada Day fireworks celebration.
The next day will be a chance to relive the past and - for those coming from out of town - discover Thompson's present. "Saturday will be tours," continues Doucet. "We're looking at getting the mayor to do a tour of the city with us, and also a tour of R.D. Parker - a school tour could be fun. The vice-principal over there, Grant Kreuger, actually graduated from there too. He was a year before us, a '78. I talked to him and he said he'd like to do the tour, he might even speak at the dinner." Saturday's dinner and dance will be held in Paint Lake as the grand finale of the weekend.
"It's $50 for the whole weekend, it's pretty cheap, pretty reasonable," adds Doucet. "A lot of people are staying with people they know, some people are getting hotels."
While tracking down all 120 or so of the 1979 grads would normally be the trickiest part of the whole affair - and it still is - Doucet says that it's not as bad as some might think, and technology is helping. "We went through the whole list, and there's probably about three-quarters that somebody has a connection with, or somebody knows somehow," she notes. "Even through Facebook, some people have still been contacted - people who we wouldn't know where they are or anything like that."
At least one grad has committed to journeying to Thompson from Australia for the weekend, while Doucet says she's surprised by how many have stayed in town all along. "I think there was the pattern of a lot of people leaving, but it seems like more people are staying or have gone and come back," she says.
