The town of Fireside, Michigan is a town where everyone knows everyone which is why when a woman decided to reunite her old middle school class together in an effort to recreate their old
(prHWY.com) December 16, 2011 - Seattle, WA -- The town of Fireside, Michigan is a town where everyone knows everyone which is why when a woman decided to reunite her old middle school class together in an effort to recreate their old
yearbook pictures, no one in town objected. Sylvia Gray, who attended Fireside Middle School in 1971, got the idea to gather all 150 of her fellow classmates and recreate the entire yearbook.
"We took some totally out-there photographs and I just thought it would be kinda cool to get the whole class together to recreate the photos that were in our middle school yearbook," Gray said.
Getting together the entire class wasn't too hard as the majority of the students of the 1971 middle school class still live in or around Fireside, Michigan. Only 25 students moved out of the area with the furthest living in San Diego, California. To ensure no one missed the event, the 2011 classes of Fireside Middle School held bake sales and fundraisers throughout the year to pay for all 25 students to come back to Fireside.
"We're a really close-knit group of individuals. Even after 30 years everyone knows where everyone is and what they are doing," Mark Halloway, a fellow Fireside Middle School alumni said. "In fact some of my daughters are attending Fireside Middle School currently with some of my classmate's children. It's amazing."
The 1971 yearbook for Fireside Middle School featured pictures from class trips, class photos at local attractions and photos right inside the middle school itself. Sylvia Gray hired local photographer, Tad Rodgers, to help in the planning and shooting of the recreated middle school photos.
"Shooting this group of individuals has been a complete honor. It's like these people are as close as they were 30 years ago", Rodgers said. "What made it even more fun is that all of the original photographs could be taken just as they were in 1971, the only difference is the people in them are older and wiser."
After a five day event of taking photographs and catching up, the 125 individuals celebrated by having a full-blown
class reunion
complete with four-course dinners, wine tastings, dancing and music. During the party, the pictures that will appear in a completed yearbook form and sent to all 125 individuals were revealed on a big screen.
"It was fun to see the before and after photos. The screen showed us what we looked like in 1971 and then what we just took it was amazing," Halloway said. "I really hope that my daughters are forming a bond like this and see how much fun my old classmates and I are having. I hope they'll consider carrying on the tradition and try recreating their own class photos when
their middle school hits their 30 year mark."
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