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The story behind this website (by Dan Kinney '69):
The class of '69 celebrated our 30th high school reunion in
October of 1999. It was a great weekend as Bob Colby came in
from Atlanta with his wife and Jim Allen came in from Pittsburg
with his wife. All the locals Bob Andrews, Tom Cottrone, Bill
Correnti, Dave Rigby and myself all attended the reunion as
well. On Sunday Bill Correnti had us all to his house for a
brunch including Dennis Kaufman ('66). Bob Colby surprised us
with a VHS video he had produced with all the scrapbooks and
old 8mm movies our parents took of us when we were in color
guard. Lord knows how much time and effort he spent doing this,
but it was incredible. It brought back so many good memories.
It opened my eyes and I said we will have to stay in touch.
Well we didn't...
A few years passed and very suddenly in 2003 Wayne Rabideau's
('69) younger brother Tom (Rhino) Rabideau died at the very
young age of 49. It suddenly dawned on me that we were all getting
older and you just never know what tomorrow will bring.
It also dawned on me that I had not kept my promise too stay
in touch with the guys; the members of the Aquinas Color Guard
that had become really good friends. Yes some had moved away,
but some were right here in Rochester. Yes I had failed to pick
up the phone to stay in touch, but so did they (shame on us).
Being the organizer that I am I decided it was time to do something
about. I said; "Gee let's have a reunion". I soon realized that
was a bigger task then I could handle. So I decided to ease
into it. I contacted all the former Aquinas Color Guard member
who still live locally that I knew how to contact and organized
a happy hour. That was at least two years ago (2005). Since
then we have been meeting for a happy hour about every six months.
The group being myself, Tom Cottrone, Bob Andrews, Phil Knight,
Bill Correnti and Rob Schrader.
My intent was to get other former AQ Color Guard members included
who also were still local from other years. John Palermo ('67)
joined the group as did Mike Maiuri ('65). Mike was brave and
joined Bill Correnti and myself and marched at Alumni Weekend
last year (2006). Bill Correnti has since moved to North Carolina
and I didn't hear from Mike or anyone else; so this year there
were no alumni band or color guard members who marched at Alumni
Weekend.
Last year (2006) Bill Correnti brought his copy of the Video
to show the current band and color guard; it was a huge hit.
They thoroughly enjoyed it and were very impressed by our style
back then.
Being a technology geek I contacted Bob Colby and asked him
if he could convert the Video to DVD. VHS was old technology;
time to bring it current. It took him a while, but he did it.
This year the class of '67 was celebrating their 40th reunion.
John Palermo contacted guys from his class and had a little
reunion party at his house the weekend of Alumni Weekend. I
was invited and got to reconnect with Mike Christman, Don Brookins,
Kevin Brinkman, Tom Brady and Dave Behr ('66). I brought the
DVD along to show the guys and they too were very impressed.
I had copies for everybody and they all cherished them.
The DVD was and is my most prized possession, but I said if
we all enjoyed it so much I'm sure others from that era would
as well. And what better way to reconnect not only with former
AQ Color Guard members, but with members from other guards that
we competed against. Wouldn't it be great to have one great
big reunion with everyone.
So I decided to create this website and put as much memorabilia
on it from our AQ Color Guard days to keep those memories alive.
Yes I converted the DVD to streaming video for everyone to enjoy.
I also invite former AQ Band members to contribute any memorabilia
that they would like to share. And if there are any Color Guard
people from our era that find us and would like to share a story
or two or memorabilia; we would love to hear them.
So please stop by and sign my guest book or send me an e-mail.
I will add you to my growing list and maybe soon we can have
a real big reunion.
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