Kayhi Class of 1986 Reunion

posted by Abby Kosmos:

Please keep my good pal Darin Perue in your thoughts & prayers as he is currently dealing with a leaky heart valve issue that requires open heart surgery to repair. Late last month he contracted a staph infection that caused multiple serious issues. He has been in the hospital in Wilmington, NC since December 29, but was recently moved to Duke University Hospital where he is fighting to get stronger. They hope to do surgery this Wednesday if all goes according to plan so please pray for strength & healing for Darin & and the great medical team that is working hard for him. Family & friends have been by his side for support. 💙🙏🏼💙🙏🏼

Happy Summer everyone! For those in Ketchikan, Shelly Hulse is in town and a bunch are gathering at Refuge Cove at 6:30 today. Stop by and say hi!

Everyone remember Mr. Murphy from Schoenbar 😊

We have lost another classmate too young. RIP Dawn Filo. Very sorry to hear of her passing this weekend. Only 53. I wish her peace and rest and eternal happiness.

A heartbroken post dedicated to Weston Davis, who tragically passed away late Tuesday night in a fire. Very sorry to hear this.

Closing this down pretty soon. Please steal any content you want a copy of. This page has served its purpose.

The reunion is over. Time to go home. Thank you all for coming to be with us. Safe travels for those who have to get on a boat or a plane.

Every single one of you made an impact. All the stuff we did turned out fine. But what made it so great was the high inclusion rate and everyone just being themselves and adding their spirit to the events. We were all high on the energy around us, but we were also all part of making it happen.

Thank you again to all who showed up for even one event. I sincerely hope each of you is glad you came. I hope each of you realizes you had more camaraderie with your classmates than maybe you'd thought in the past. If you weren't here, we missed you. But those of us who were here had a helluva good time. None of us will ever forget this reunion, so it's good that we made the most of it.

Each event stood out for different reasons. The "Pub Crawl" wasn't even an official event. We just wanted to get started early, so we made sure to publish a meeting place and time to get everyone to the same spot. We ended up at the Arctic, which is now co-owned by one of our own. We just stayed there. We had a tremendous turnout of our classmates. Since we were at a pub, we also had other visitors. We even had a few surprise guests. It ended up being fantastic.

The picnic was planned, and we invited people from all 80s classes. It was just as great, and maybe more so. All sorts of folks from our adjacent classes showed up. There were, naturally, some hiccups. But hey! There is such thing as being TOO organized and prepared. We all answered the bell, and it the party happened. We got a lot of thank you’s and love from people from outside of our class who were grateful for being included. I hope this becomes a tradition going forward. For the record, it was originally Rick Collins’ (87) idea. Glad he came and hung out with us!

It was at night in the later stages of the picnic that we paid our respects to our deceased classmates. I believe in the spiritual healing of honoring the dead and reminding ourselves of their lives. This went better than I could have imagined. First, most of our lanterns actually flew! Next, the reaction from families and friends of the deceased told us that we did the right thing. We were hoping to share with their loved ones, and I think we did that.

The cruise was next. We ended up having some sort of fail with food delivery. Wendy Miller, Tim Kuharich and Darin Perue scrambled to make sure we had food on the boat. The photo thing functioned. The music thing functioned. The drink line went pretty quickly. It was well attended, even though two of our guys ended up on shore. We had another great time. The energy on the boat was great. It was magic!

The dinner was nice. We even had a few late arrivals show up and join us. The food was great. There were many photos taken. The vibe was more relaxed, but fun. The weather even teased us and improved. We joked about how that was nature messing with us, since this was the first all-indoor event. But it would be a preview of the luck we’d have for the parade.

As tired as we were, and as much fun as we already had, I think the parade was the best part. We all got to let loose, and we put smiles on a lot of the audience’s faces with our noise, presentation, and mostly just our rocking the house (and the tunnel). I've heard from a few who watched the parade from the street that the energy changed when we passed by. That float was the best party I've been to in a very long time.

It was like we'd had a long season, and were exhausted from the playoffs. But when the parade arrived, we all found inside of ourselves whatever energy we had left to win the championship game. We left it all out on the field! Also, many of us now know that you can get something resembling sea legs from spending a couple of hours on a shaking flatbed trailer.

Thank you, in particular, to all of those who really didn't want to come to this reunion, but ended up doing so. I understand very well that people have anxiety about these kinds of things. Reunions really aren't something that everyone enjoys. But people were happy to see you. And it only added to the experience for many others that you were here. I hope you ended up having a great time.

We're only on this planet for so long. Life is short, and time is precious. One thing that life can never take away from you is your experiences. Thank you (Yes, YOU!) for helping to pack this last week so full of great, happy memories for the rest of us. Until we see each other again...

These reunion events are fun, and the best part is connecting with and catching up with all of our tribe. People are coming out of the woodwork and it's a lot of fun to see all of you.

In addition, we felt it was important to pay our respects to those who have passed on. We were able to identify 11 classmates who graduated with us or would have who are now deceased. We opted for the Chinese style lanterns which are lit and fly off into the heavens via hot air propulsion. In Ketchikan, that typically means with a major assist from the wind.

Attached are photos of the lanters as we hand wrote their names on a picnic table. Someone later came up with the great idea to have us sign them, but it was too late logistically to put that together. All that writing may or may not have compromised the lanters' ability to fly.

In the end, nine of them flew beautifully, and two crashed. We were amateurs, but there were a few folks who demonstrated some savvy and made the lanterns perform beautifully. We read off the names as well.

We certainly hope we didn't omit anyone who is deceased. While this era makes it easier to find people, there are still many classmates who we were unable to get in touch with. The eleven below are seemingly confirmed, but even then details about how each died are limited.

Either way, we feel that the crowd who joined us in honoring these folks made a great effort, and we paid our proper respects. Each of these eleven people have touched our lives in one way or another, and we will remember them for as long as we're still around. Thank you to all and much love.

This has been said before, but we are still getting inquiries: There is NO dress code for any of the events. You should guage the weather, and you should dress as YOU feel comfortable.

What matters is you being comfortable and having a good time. What does not matter is what anyone else thinks.

Hey! We're gettin' close.

The reunion officially begins unofficially. On Thursday night, June 30, we will have a pub crawl for you early arrivals. We'll begin to congregate at 5pm, at the Arctic Bar! Our hosts are our own Tommy Jones and Leanne Lutz!

The Arctic has recently undergone a facelift. Come chill in the clean, non-smoking, newly remodeled bar area. You can smoke out on the best outdoor patio in town! From that patio, you can also view the tail end of the repair work being done to berth 3. They also have a variety of Arctic Bar T shirts and hoodies! This will be a good meeting spot while we're all here over the 4th of July weekend.

So, please come join us if you're in town, as we kick off our 30 year reunion at the Arctic!!

We're gonna retire this page, as the Kayhi Class of '86 Group has taken the baton.

Let me know if anyone objects...