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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. |
