Details For Saturday Morning

Hey Classmates,

I can’t believe our reunion weekend starts in a little over 24 hours!!! I wanted to give you all details for the bridge dedication and bring-your-own-brunch picnic on Saturday morning. I need all of you to help me get this information around to everyone. I talked to Sue Harris and she and Steve have been gracious enough to provide us their home. She has asked for us to park at their house at 9:30am in front of Kelly’s trailer and we will have as many to a vehicle as we can to minimize parking around the bridge, plus hopefully you will all be going back to their house for the picnic. As I stated earlier, it is a bring your own meal picnic so make sure you don’t forget drinks too!! I will try to have a chest of ice in case anyone needs some or to keep their drinks cool. Also remember to bring either some chairs or blankets to sit on. The Harris’s will also graciously open up Kelly’s trailer for the bathroom and any diaper changing that might be needed and there is a little kitchen in there too. She also said that they will build an outside fire if anyone would like to roast some hot dogs or smores!!!  I hope I have remembered to tell you guys everything. I am so looking forward to seeing each of you and hope you can make it to all the events. If anyone has any questions or needs directions please give me a call on my cell at (918) 991-5552. Don’t forget to tell anyone you see all these details, don’t any one to be sitting on the grass or hungry!! See you soon!

Kasie

Only 4 Days Left!!!

Hello Classmates,

I can not believe how quick our 10 year reunion is approaching. I am super excited to see everyone this weekend. I hope that you all received your invitations if you had sent me your address. We have a few extras but since it is so close there really isn’t enough time to mail any more. So I have uploaded a copy for all of those that do not have one so you can have all the information and details. Please e-mail me at twinstar32@hotmail.com if you have any questions. I hope everyone can attend and look forward to seeing you. P.S. Just click on the images of the invitation to make them large enough to read.

Class of 1999 Ten-Year Reunion

Thank you all for being so patient during this planning process. It just takes a lot of time to get in touch with everyone and work out the numbers/details. As you know I had recently posted about ticket prices and needing at least 40 people for sure to come to justify the cost of renting a facility such as Kilharen’s. Unfortunately, we did not make that number and I can understand. It is sometimes difficult to commit to something in the future. BUT, no worries we just switched up the plans a bit. Below you will see an itinerary of the weekend. Most of it is good to go but just need to finalize some details of the bridge dedication and picnic with Sue Harris. Also, I had some Oops information given. I was originally under the impression that Friday Oct. 23 was FTG’s Homecoming game. So when I called the school to verify I was surprised to find out it is actually 9/25 and the game on the 23rd is of course the one out of town game of October. Huge bummer! But we are still planning to meet at Max’s Garage in Muskogee on Friday night for drinks and to get some extra hanging out time in so please stop by. Whitney (Colbert) Gayer has been so wonderful and offered to design our invitations and now that plans have been able to be made they will soon be printed and in the mail to those of you who have given me your address. I am so excited to see all of you and hope that I have been able to plan events to please everyone. Please feel free to e-mail any questions and comments to me @ twinstar32@hotmail.com. I’m sure there will be a few more posts before the reunion. Thank you. Kasie

• Friday October 23, 2009
  • Max’s Garage 116 N. Main St Muskogee, Ok
  • Everyone is welcome to come over to Max’s bar for an in-formal get together and drinks. This will give everyone a chance to get in some catching up before the dinner on Saturday.
• Saturday October 24, 2009
  • Bayou Bridge Dedication to Kelly Harris: I will get the exact time for the bridge dedication from Sue Harris.
  • BYOP: Bring-Your-Own-Picnic:
    • Just after the bridge dedication, We have all been graciously invited to The Harris’s home for a bring-your-own-picnic with your family. This is a wonderful opportunity for all of the classmates who have children to bring their families so that we may all meet each other. Weather permitting we will be outside so the children can run and play.
  • Dinner at Johnny V’s Ristorante & Pizzeria 325 N. Main St. Muskogee, Ok
    • We will not be having any tickets; each family will be responsible for their own bill. Due to the large party, the gratuity will be automatically charged.
  • 5:00pm- Cocktail Hour in the upstairs bar.
  • 6:00pm- Dinner in upstairs dining area
    • Each family can choose any item from the full and delicious menu.

Need to let me know!!

1999 Classmates-
I apologize for writing another post about letting me know again whether you are planning on attending our upcoming reunion, BUT this one is not only the last one (I promise) but the most important. As I had mentioned in the last post, details are having to be finalized very soon. Many of you have voted to have the reunion at Kilharen’s Lodge. So I have gathered all the information and costs for having it there. I have tried very hard to not only make it the cheapest that I can but also make everyone happy with the menu. The tickets to attend including dinner will be $50.00 per person. I honestly did not want them to be in this range but with the number attending that is the best I can do. To move forward and finalize Kilharen’s as our venue, I am required to place a $250.00 non-refundable deposit. So, to cover all of our cost and not lose this deposit we have to have no less than 40 people attend for sure(no cancels). If this works out it would be wonderful but no worries we have a backup plan. All activities of the weekend would stay the same, we would just have to change up where/how we have our dinner on Saturday night. Instead of having the formal dinner paid through a ticket, we will decide on a restaurant in Muskogee that would preferrably have a private room for us. That way there will be no extra cost and each could pay for their own dinners and we could still do what we had come together to do: See old friends, laugh and catch up from the last 10 years!!
Since invitations are waiting to be printed, I need to know once again (and finally!! I promise) whether you are planning to attend and if bringing a spouse/date. I know many of you have already told me but please bear with me and let me know one more time. Please let me know either by leaving a comment on this post, e-mail @ twinstar32@hotmail.com or a message on Facebook or MySpace. I need to know no later than 5pm on Monday August 31,2009.
The next post/update will let everyone know where the venue will be and then onto also letting you know all the final details of the reunion weekend. Thank you everyone for being patient with me and I hope to make it the best for us no matter where it is located. Look forward to hearing from you all!!
Kasie (Hickman) Eldredge

New Updates

Hello Classmates,
As many of you know I have been contacting you asking for either your mailing address for invitations or if you are wanting to come. Sorry to ask so much but I need to so that I can know definitive numbers which determines ticket prices. So far we have 50 people that have said Yes for sure and then 10 more maybe’s. This is awesome. I am so excited to see everyone. This is also going to make the tickets approximately $25.00-$30.00 plus food. Exactly the price range I was wanting. I think this is super affordable. I am actually going to get to hang out with Jennifer (Gauntt) this week and we plan to go over the menu offerings and start making those decisions. Most decisions are about to be made because OH MY GOSH we are only 2 months away. Whitney (Colbert) has graciously offered to design invitations for us. As soon as those get printed I will be mailing them out to those of you who have given me your address. There will also be an insert with the invitation outlining all the planned activities for the weekend. So if you have yet to send it to me, please do so. I will also be letting everyone know when the money is due and exactly where to send it (probably to me). I will add an updated list at the bottom of this post of the remaining classmates that I have been unable to find. Again if you know how to contact any of them please let me know and have them e-mail me at twinstar32@hotmail.com. Again, the tentative plans for the reunion weekend are as follows:

Friday October 23, 2008
Homecoming Football Game at Fort Gibson High School
In-Formal get together at bar in Muskogee (Most likely Max’s Garage)
Saturday October 24, 2009
Bring-Your-Own-Picnic @ The Harris’s: This will also be a time that
we are planning to have a bridge dedication in honor of Kelly Harris
(at the old bayou bridge going to his parent’s house). This will be
the time that those of us who have kiddo’s can bring them so that
we may all meet each other’s families. (I will be speaking with Sue to
finalize these plans)
Formal Dinner at Kilharen’s Lodge Muskogee, OK
In the evening we will all meet for drinks, dinner and mingling to
reminisce and reacquaint with each other.
You are all more than welcome to visit http://www.kilharenslodge.com to check out their beautiful facility. Thanks and I look forward to seeing you all. I will be posting more updates as they happen.

Updated “Lost” Classmates:
Justin Arnett
Kevin Bausch
Shawn Bowden
George Barton (Kim Frost-Jernigan said she could get his address?)
James Burns
Sean Busey
Jeff Carr
Daniel Cochran
Dorsey Creech
Cara Deturk
Brooke Eastwood
Barbara Goad
Justin Haynes
Stacey Hayward
Jack Holmes (Used to have him on MySpace but can no longer find him)
Mia Igert
Merita Joseph
Dave Kalkwarf
Katrina Mannon
Wade McClain
Ashley Melton
Travis Morrow
Norbert Niebieszczans
Robert Penny (Maybe Amy Clopton knows it)
Sabrina Ragsdale
Ben Rybolt (Possibly Brian Panter getting information)
Brendan Smith
Christie Sparks (On MySpace but do not know her info. for protected friends request)
Tammy Stamps
Heidi Stanley
Lindsey Tackett
Crystal Taylor (Used to have her on MySpace but can no longer find her)
Sara Taylor
Shawnda Taylor
Lance Vann
Josh Wall
Tiffany Walton
Kristine Berres
John Bryant
Matt Mason
Chris McFarland
Raul Valenzuela
Jeremy Vann
Thank you everyone.
Kasie (Hickman) Eldredge

“Lost Classmates”

FTG ’99 Classmates,
As the reunion is approaching and planning is coming along I want to locate as many if not all of our classmates and extend an invitation. So I need help in locating some of our “lost” classmates. Luckily there are a good number of us on Facebook or MySpace (as well as having some e-mail addresses), but not all. I think I have most of our classmates as “friends” on these sites but not sure. Hopefully, there are more than I know of. Here is a list of our classmates that I do not know how to contact them. If you have information on anyone please let me know and also encourage them to look at our Class of 1999 Reunion blog @ https://ftgtiger99.wordpress.com/ to get all information. I appreciate all of your help and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible.
• Jarrod Armstrong
• Justin Arnett
• Kevin Bausch
• Shawn Bowden
• James Burns
• Sean Busey
• Jeff Carr
• Daniel Cochran
• Dorsey Creech
• Cindy Culver
• Cara Deturk
• Katrina Easterling
• Brooke Eastwood
• Kristen Emerson
• Danny Gist
• Barbara Goad
• Justin Haynes
• Stacey Hayward
• Nancy Hernandez
• Chris Hix
• Mia Igert
• Merita Joseph
• Dave Kalkwarf
• Sarah Kelley
• Kathryn Land
• Beth Lewis
• Katrina Mannon
• Wade McLain
• Ashley Melton
• Travis Morrow
• Norbert Niebieszczans
• Alicia Northrup
• Jodie Phillips
• Joe Phillips
• Wes Pledger
• Sabrina Ragsdale
• Angela Rowan
• Rebekah Ryan
• Ben Rybolt
• Kelly Shaughnessy
• Ashley Shelor
• Brandon Shipley
• Brendan Smith
• Christie Sparks
• Brian Spencer
• Tammy Stamps
• Heidi Stanley
• Lindsey Tackett
• Sara Taylor
• Shawnda Taylor
• Tiffany Thronburg
• Julie Turner
• Lance Vann
• David Wade
• Joshua Wall
• Tiffany Walton
• Delana Wilson
• Jacob Wilson
• Tiffany Yarbrough
• Kristine Berres
• John Bryant
• Timothy Davis
• Matt Mason
• Chris McFarland
• Robert Penney
• Raul Valenzuela
• Jeremy Vann
• Jeremy Rowe

Reunion Vote

Class of ’99 Friends-                                     July 16, 2009

            I wanted to give everyone an update about our big 10 year reunion coming up very quickly; along with some much needed input from all of you. Several months back, I started the process of researching all the venues and caterers that I could think of in the area of our hometown. I found several great choices in Muskogee. Jennifer (Gauntt) and I talked them over and thought that the newly built Kilharen’s Lodge was the best. It is beautiful and everything could be carried out through them including the bar, catering, servers, etc. I was able to get our reunion date of October 24^th “penciled in” along with all their menu information and costs for having an event there. It was only penciled in at this point because it requires a $250 deposit but they said it was fine because they understood that for a reunion it takes some time to locate everyone and get funds together. But we can’t get funds without knowing ticket price and to determine the ticket price we needed to know how many people were coming. So, this was when I starting requesting everyone send me their contact information and let me know if they wanted to attend the reunion.  Luckily there are a lot of us on Facebook and MySpace but to try and get the word out even more I created a blog that hopefully people would also find if doing a general search on the internet. As of right now, I am excited that 10-15 people out of the class have said they want to come to the reunion. Which is awesome.

                We are rapidly approaching the event date and are at the point where we need to know who/how many would like to attend because we need to determine ticket prices. We really don’t want to have  a “blanket” ticket price because we don’t want it to be too low if not that many people want to attend and then the costs aren’t covered or too high and have to return money. Although the 10-15 people who want to come is so awesome we don’t think it will be enough to cover the costs at Kilharen’s. Jenn and I were hoping that approximately 75 classmates (including their spouses) would like to attend to make the ticket prices approximately $21 without any food yet so hopefully anywhere between $30-35 all together. We really want to keep the ticket prices affordable.  Here is a quick breakdown of their expenses to get a better idea what all they require paying for:

• $500 for Building rental (which includes the $250 deposit) for the whole evening
• $75: $7.50/table x10 tables (seats 8 ) for table cloths
• $300 or $187.50: $4 x 75 people for china and silverware/person or $2.50 x75 for plastic cutlery/person
• $120 for setup fee
• $150 for cleanup fee
• Approximately $135 for 3 servers for 3 hours (they determine the number of servers needed so I am guessing since we are going for a buffet)
• $100 for bartender (Cash bar using their bartenders)
• $175 for an officer  to be security (it is requirement with alcohol being served)
  • Tentative total of $1,555.00 without food prices included (or $1,442.50 in using plastic cutlery)
• We also have to give them a damage deposit of $400 for any damages that would hopefully not happen but will require that to be paid by the person who caused any damages and our check would be voided.
• This also doesn’t include invitations but hopefully those could be made by me cheaply but still cute with some help of our classmates who are now graphic designers.
• I also wanted to put a Save-the-Date in the newspaper but for just 2 days (over a weekend)in one paper that is $45 which increases the tickets even more but will be happy to if everyone thinks it would get the word out better.

             So, this is where I need input from everyone. It is looking like we are not going to have enough people want to attend to justify renting a place like Kilharen’s and not make the tickets ridiculously expensive. Which I want to emphasize is totally fine with me. I am happy to set up whatever we would like to do. It is “OUR” reunion, not just mine. So, if we do not want to go that route and have a smaller number of people wanting to come we can certainly go less formal and all meet at a restaurant in Muskogee (possibly Miss Addie’s or Harmony House since we could have it to ourselves) which would not entail all of these fees and everyone pay for the food on their own.  The other plans for the weekend include going to the FTG football game on Friday night since it is Homecoming and all meeting at Max’s Garage in Muskogee for drinks and a pre-reunion get together. Then the dinner would be on Saturday night. We would also love to fit in somewhere a time that not only the classmates could get together but also their families so we can meet everyone’s spouses and beautiful babies but there really isn’t anything in particular set up for that yet.

           So, Jenn and I talked the other day and thought it would be best to put all of this out there for you and give you some time to think about what you would like to do. I am going to be out of town until mid-August and would like for you to let me know what your vote is (as well as your contact info. If haven’t given it yet) by August 12^th. That gives everyone a couple of weeks to decide and depending on the number wanting to attend we will go forward with Kilharen’s or the less formal independent dinner.  We also thought it would be fun to play our Senior year video at dinner and Kris Lehman has graciously offered to make an updated video showing 3-4 pictures of everyone through the past 10 years. But she is a busy girl and can’t wait until too late to get started so she would need everyone to send their pictures to her now. This is definitely not a requirement but for fun. She asked that they be given to her digitally to make it easier so either through e-mail or mailed to her on a CD. She is on Facebook and MySpace to e-mail but I could also get her regular e-mail for anyone who needs it. I am so excited to see everyone and for this to be super fun for all.  Sorry that this was such a long letter but wanted to get all the information to you.  I will be posting a list of classmates that have not been located by e-mail or through Facebook and MySpace probably tomorrow for you help in locating as many of us as possible. Thank you guys so much for all of your help and look forward to hearing what the decision is.

Kasie (Hickman) Eldredge

Twinstar32@hotmail.com

Getting the word out!

Hello 1999 Classmates-

I decided to create a blog to help get the word out on all the information for the upcoming 10 year reunion. I can not believe it has already been 10 years!!! I have been working very hard for many months getting plans together. I am hoping to make this a wonderful reunion. I have heard from many of you on MySpace and Facebook, but know that not everyone in our class is using these social networks. I am also hoping that this will be a great place to post lots of pictures of not only mine but also yours to help us remember our FTG days and get excited to celebrate our reunion. I have an obscene amount of photos from high school and plan to post them soon. If you have any and would like me to post please feel free to e-mail me and I would be happy to post them. Please feel free to contact me with any ideas or questions you might have for the reunion. I would love your input.

What I have planned so far:

Date: October 24, 2009

This is actually the weekend of Fort Gibson’s Homecoming and we thought it would be a lot of fun to go to the game on Friday night. We have also thrown around the idea of getting together after the game on Friday night at a bar in Muskogee (have no idea which yet, not familiar with any of them) to have a more informal time to get together.

Where: Kilharen’s Lodge

Muskogee, OK

This is a beautiful new venue that has been built out on Fern Mountain road. I decided on this location not only because it is gorgeous, but they take care of everything from the bar to catering which makes the whole planning aspect so much easier. 

I am currently in talks with them on the menu and will let everyone know what is decided.

Unfortunately, I am having difficulty getting contact information from everyone and knowing who actually wants to come. I will post soon who I am unable to find and how many are planning on attending. It will be so much more fun (and not to mention cheaper) if more people are there. I am going to finish up here but will post more in the following days when I figure out this blogging stuff more.