Kelvin grads from 1983 setting up reunion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/02/2003 (8524 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT’S been 20 years since high school, long enough for the members of Kelvin High School’s class of 1983 to have done their own thing and want to catch up with old friends and tell them about it.

On July 11, classmates will gather at Pockets Bar and Grill for a cocktail party. The following night, they will be invited to attend a dinner and dance at the Manitoba Masonic Centre.

“We had a great time in high school,” says Lori King (formerly Turnbull), one of the reunion organizers. “This will be the first reunion for our class. There are approximately 300 grads and we have contacted about 200 so far. But it’s a challenge.”

King was vice-president of Kelvin’s student council in her graduating year. Since that time she has married, has three sons, and manages an insurance company in the old River Heights neighbourhood she still calls home. She still goes to the cottage on Lake of the Woods.

Classmate David Kroft was student council president that same year. He also resides in Winnipeg and is now a lawyer.

“I was into sports. I played basketball,” says King. “David was more into the musicals, etc. High school was a very positive time for us. We had a lot of fun, great teachers like Mr. Froese, Mr. Wiebe, Mrs. Kinley and Mrs. Jamieson. Those were some of my favourites. And we would love to have any of our old teachers come out, too.”

King remembers attending Kelvin’s 75th anniversary in 1989 with her mom Val Turnbull, who also attended Kelvin. King remembers only a few of her fellow classmates attending those festivities, probably because it was held so soon after they graduated.

“Six years wasn’t long enough,” says King. “It took a bit longer for our lives to change and our perspectives to grow. Now many of us have married, had children, gotten into careers, travelled the world. I am very interested to hear what everyone has been up to.”

There’s still several high school friends King sees a few times a year, and she often bumps into other grads who have remained in River Heights.

“Lots of us are still here,” says King. “But others are as far away as Singapore, Australia, France, all over the United States and Canada. We hope many of them will come home for the reunion.”

The 20th reunion was originally contemplated in the spring of 2002. It got its start because fellow classmates who ran into King kept asking her if there would be one. Initially, King and a couple of classmates started to plan the event. In September, they booked the venues. By October, a committee of 10 to 12 graduates began meeting monthly to work out the event details and contact fellow grads.

“The 1980s were a dull decade, when it comes to fashion and music,” King says. “But we had a great time at Kelvin. Things have changed since, but so have we. Our perspectives have changed.”

She fondly remembers holiday skits called Christmas Capers, school dances with live bands, sporting events and sock hops at lunch.

“My kids have flipped through my yearbook,” she says. “They ask me about what I was doing. It makes me realize I have changed. This is a good time to have a reunion. We are now parents, married, in careers, travelled. We are close to 40, but still young.”

For further information on the Kelvin High Class of 1983 20th Reunion, call Chris Hlady at 942-1532 or send an e-mail to Lori King at lking@turnbullwhitaker.com for a brochure.

Those who register by March 15 get a discount. Final registration deadline is May 15.

PHOTO LINDA VERMETTE/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS