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MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT: I hope the newsletter finds you all well as we move into the holiday season. I want to fill you in on association business. The Community Relations Committee is continuing the Arbor Day tradition of tree planting at the school and the various communities that make up the school district. We have received affirmative responses from Chatham Central School District, the Village of Chatham, and the Towns of Chatham, Ghent, and Kinderhook. To date, we have planted one tree as part of “Ghent Community Day” during the final weekend of September. The Alumni association tree was planted at the Ghent Community Center in West Ghent. This undertaking by the Association is to renew one of our valued school traditions, the Arbor Day tree planting on school grounds, but now exercise it as alumni in the communities we grew up in. The picture below shows the planting of the Alumni Association’s first tree.

A project that will need some volunteer support is headed up by our Educational Support Committee. We are working with the Board of Education, School administrators, and teachers to identify ways for volunteer support to be used in the educational process. Our sense is that many community members, and particularly our retirees/seniors, would like to help the communities’ children and young adults achieve their full potential as students in the Chatham School District.

Maybe it’s:

• Reading one-on-one with an elementary student once or twice a week, or helping with math.
• Being a mentor to a high school student who has a career interest in a trade or profession.
• Assisting with science clubs, or debate clubs, or sports programs.

We would like to utilize the great wealth of experience, knowledge, and caring that we have in the community to provide additional education support to our students. We’ll let you know of specific initiatives as they develop through the year.

Our Finance Committee is beginning the process of setting up a Foundation that can accept tax deductible contributions for use in bettering the educational opportunities of Chatham Students. I believe fundraising for scholarships will come under the eventual 503c organization, but the additional recipient programs that will be included have yet to be determined. Many communities and associations are using foundations to raise tax-deductible monies for worthwhile causes, and our Foundation will hopefully provide great service to the community also. If you’d like to help in the process of setting up the Foundation, or have questions or input please email or write use. (Email and mailing address can be found at the end of the newsletter.)

I want to let you know that there is a small, dedicated, motivated, and enthusiastic group of people who meet monthly to conduct Association business and organize events and programs that can keep us together as proud and united alumni. We have tried, so far, to pursue a handful of projects that we believe are worthwhile and deserve continuing. It is my hope that we would have achieved more interest and support from additional alumni to further expand our positive influence within the school district and the communities. Unfortunately, we have seen a decrease in total membership paying annual dues (only $10), which worries me that the officers and directors of the Association are not organizing programs of interest to the alumni at large.

PLEASE, give us feedback. We need to have growing membership, we need to have new perspectives and ideas brought to the Board, and we need to organize programs that bring value to alumni members. If we cannot achieve these items, then the association will eventually cease to exist. Please, let us know: What can we do to improve as an organization?

Please enjoy the newsletter! In your service, Dave O’Connor (Class of 1977)

In the picture to the Left: President: Dave O'Connor Vice President: Nancy Knabbe

The Annual Picnic

The Social Committee organized our second annual picnic cookout at Crellin Park this summer. It was a busy weekend for activities around Chatham, and that may explain a modest turnout. It was a nice day reminiscing with fellow alumni and their friends. Please, if you’re in the area during the summer picnic, make a point of stopping by (and bring a friend) to catch up with old friends, and maybe make some new ones. A few pictures of the event follow below.

Some of the attendees talked
Some of us listened		Some Ate	Some Ate a lot

Down Memory Lane

Looking Back On the 1970's Kim Westover Cardillo - Class of 1977

Still dealing with the aftermath of the turbulent 1960s, the decade of the 1970s launched a new era of political and social unrest (the shootings at Kent State, the end of the Vietnam War, the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon), but also celebrated some significant achievements (18-year-olds given the right to vote, Roe vs. Wade, girls given permission to play Little League, the admission of the first women to the Military Academy at West Point, and the birth of the first test-tube baby, Louise Brown). Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the highly publicized “Battle of the Sexes,” and Hank Aaron beat Babe Ruth’s home run record. The ‘70s brought the first Earth Day (1970), as well as the last Beatles’ album, “Let It Be” (1970), and the last Apollo mission (1972). And, of course, a huge bicentennial birthday party for our country (1976). The ‘70s saw the introduction of many things that have become integral parts of our current culture . . . HBO and ESPN, FedEx, Apple Computer, MRI technology, Nike running shoes, disposable razors and Disney World! The decade began with the Jackson Five on the radio and “All in the Family” on our televisions, and ended with Gloria Gaynor and Blondie, “Happy Days” and “Laverne and Shirley.” The ‘70s were a time of great change and great promise, and a huge influence on our future.

And so it was as a student at Chatham Central. As a middle school student in the early ‘70s, I can remember the day when a bomb scare sent all of the occupants of the junior high school (what is now Chatham Middle School) out onto its massive lawn (well, it seemed massive back then!) for the majority of the day – long before the days of emergency dismissal drills. Soon after, the combination of a national energy crisis and an overcrowded school building led to “split sessions.” My junior high school days began at 12:30 p.m. and lasted until 5:00 p.m., while my high school counterparts got the “early shift.” Any inconveniences were rewarded, however, when we walked into our brand new high school in the fall of 1973. My class – the Class of 1977 – would be the first to occupy the new school for the full four years of high school. On Arbor Day 1977, when we presented our class yearbook (which, by the way, our predecessors predicted would be in comic-book form due to our meager financial coffers . . but of course was not), we dedicated it to our beloved principal, Richard Kraham, who would leave the hallowed halls of Chatham High along with us, after over 25 years as a dedicated mentor and friend.

In preparation for this article, I asked several people what they remembered most about Chatham Central in the ‘70s, and what was mentioned most often was the “streaker” incident of 1974 and the resulting student “sit-in” that put the moveable walls of our new school to their toughest test. . .and this was a response received from people who hadn’t even occupied the school at the time! Apparently, we had struck a chord, made a statement, created a legacy of sorts . . . and isn’t that what high school is supposed to be all about?

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