What’s a four-letter word for the amount of news I have to share in this column? (Hint: The word is not “lots,” “much,” “tons” or “some”). The continual challenge of the class secretaries is to figure out what to communicate in the absence of input. Well, thankfully, there is a topic of interest to all ’85s and, no, it’s not the changes in the BCS playoff system or the new roster of the Cleveland Cavaliers (I’m watching ESPN SportsCenter at this moment). Rather, it’s our upcoming 30th reunion, scheduled for June 18-20, 2015. No doubt you’ve heard about this and seen the save-the-date communication. To clarify, there is more you need to do than just save the date. You need to make plans to attend and actually attend. 


Interest in attending is partly influenced by your knowledge of which fellow classmates will also be there. Well, I’m pleased to say Russ Mitchell is attending and organizing a party at Alpha Chi Alpha. Pam and Barry Bass will be there and, I think, committed to buy everyone a round at Molly’s on June 19. I’ll be in Hanover and I have it on good authority that Cindy Bergman will be as well. I am also pretty confident I’ll see her there. If this Fab Five isn’t enough of a draw, let me toss in Herb Philpott as a definite. I know this since Herb sent me a birthday wish on Facebook. My Facebook birthday posts were only about 412 less than those received by Eamonn Brady. I know this because Eamonn and I have the same birthday, if not the same number of Facebook friends. I’m assuming Eamonn will be at reunion. 


Speaking of Facebook and reunion, what better way to increase attendance than to adopt the recent success of the ALS Challenge? With that in mind, I am “challenging” the 1,084 members of our class to attend next June. I remember that number since I was so pleased to finish in the top 1,075 of our class, but hey, that was almost 30 years ago. More specifically, I am challenging everyone to reach out to five friends and make plans to meet in Hanover. At a minimum, perhaps you’ll bring a bit of joy to someone’s day just by calling to say hello. Reach out to someone with whom you don’t regularly communicate or haven’t seen recently. With that in mind, I am challenging Dan Gray, John Hansen, Scott Erdman, Steve Moss and Pat Viscardi to contact me and let me know your plans for reunion or just to say hello.


On the topic of challenges, while you’re at it, encourage everyone you contact to send some news to Leslie Davis Dahl for the next column. I’ll start by reminding Leslie to share the update from Mark Halliday. You’ll have to read the next column or come to reunion to learn the latest about Mark.


By the way, in case you’re still pondering the word at the beginning of the column, it was “none,” and I hope that doesn’t describe the number of you who read this far.


—John MacManus, 188 Ringwood Road, Rosemont, PA 19010; (610) 525-4541; slampong@aol.com; Leslie A. Davis Dahl, 83 Pecksland Road Greenwich, CT 06831; (203) 552-0070; dahlleslie@yahoo.com