Why Attend a Reunion

A reunion is defined as two or more people coming together after a period of separation.

For some, the idea of attending a reunion creates anxiety and uncertainty. How will I be seen by the other guests? Has my body shape changed? Has my occupation netted rewards matching other guests? Am I good enough? What will I say to these people I haven’t seen in decades?

For others the cost of travel and lodging can create financial anxiety.

If planned and orchestrated well, reunions should never be anxiety provoking. Instead, the event and the overall experience should yield recalled memories while creating new, happy memories. Guests should leave feeling reconnected and like their time and money were spent well.

A Good Reunion Will

• Strengthen bonds. Reunions allow guests to reconnect and participate in meaningful conversation while rebuilding the relationship.
• Create a Sense of Belonging. Both family and school reunions remind us of the need to feel part of a community and to belong to something greater than oneself. They give us a sense of place within our families or our schools.
• Promote Personal Growth. Reunions provide invaluable insight into our personalities and life choices. School reunions remind us of the role we played as students and how we saw ourselves and how others saw us. Family reunions help us understand our life choices and even our personalities as we hear the stories and experiences of our elders and cousins.

2 Reunions, 1 Summer

I co-planned two reunions in the Summer of 2024: One family, the other collegiate.

The Reis Girls Reunion was held in Bismarck, North Dakota in June. The Iowa State University (ISU) Fisher-Nickell Reunion was held in Des Moines, Iowa in August.

The Reis Girls are granddaughters of my maternal grandparents. Twenty-one attended alongside the two remaining daughters of Pius and Juliana Reis’s 12 children. An all-inclusive Reis Reunion was held the next day with over 100 attendees.

Fisher Nickell was a freestanding co-ed house on the campus of ISU where I lived in the early 80s. Coming from a family of 11, this environment felt familiar. Like many, I thrived there and developed lasting friendships here. Twenty-five attended this event. Most had not seen one another in over four decades.

Value of Reunions

Reunions can evoke powerful emotions and, if produced well, can be valuable to our well-being. They encourage reconnection with others and allow us to learn more about ourselves. They also:

• Strengthen bonds
• Deepen a sense of belonging
• Evoke nostalgia or a sentimentality of the past, especially if reliving happy memories
• Allow one to understand family history
• Create lifelong memories

There is no substitute for being face-to-face with those who are related to you and/or shared in your early years. Attendees may reminisce with you and recall events or experiences you have long forgotten. They can remind you of the value you had in their life.

Family reunions can be particularly fulfilling as they

• Bring together relatives who have never met. For instance, spouses, newborns, etc.
• Encourage staying in touch with family after the reunion period. (Many use private Facebook pages for this specific purpose.).
• Provide ancestral information on their family. (At the greater Reis reunion, a cousin presented her extensive family history research in a PowerPoint presentation that was well received by guests of all ages. It was informational and provided endless insight to our shared heritage.).
• Celebrate the meaning of family by sharing memories and encouraging a sense of belonging to something greater than your family of origin.

15 Tips for Successful Reunions

• Create a leadership team (event planners) with at least one person residing in or near the reunion site.
• Start early. Two years is not too early to announce a reunion date.
• Promote the reunion on social media. A private page on Facebook seems to be a popular way to do this.
• Keep it affordable. Collect funds before the event. Have a registrar at the event to sign guests in and give name tags.
• Choose a location with indoor space to avoid weather related issues.
• Ensure the site has accessible toilets and even grounds and ramps for those with limited mobility.
• Create a healthy menu that includes items all can eat. [Inquire in early communications if there are specific diet restrictions that can be accommodated.]
• Arrange for group lodging discounts in the nearby area.
• Plan interactive ice breakers early in the gathering. These should seek information that showcase shared interests and/or experiences.
• Avoid an event whereby everyone shows up but there are no planned activities, or worse yet, planned activities were announced but aren’t initiated. Find ways to create interaction.
• Allow everyone an opportunity to speak or engage. Create a circle and ask guests to introduce themselves with certain information, usually no more than 3 items.
• Honor and respect the elder members, especially at family reunions. Create speaking opportunities for them to share family history and stories.
• Do not share guest contact information without permission. Create a guest list with telephone numbers and emails of all guests who’ve granted permission.
• Create traditions. For instance, each time the group meets, it plays a certain card game, has a tug-of-war, has a video presentation of each family’s additions and updates, etc. Foods associated with family heritage are a great way to showcase traditions.
• Ask someone to take photos and to create an album to share with all registrants.

What tips can you add to this list? Why do you enjoy reunions? SHARE.

©August2024 Linda Leier Thomason. All Rights Reserved.