Michael Hendrick:
CLASS OF 1984
Troup County Comprehensive High SchoolClass of 1984
Lagrange, GA
University of Cincinnati - MusicClass of 1993
Cincinnati, OH
Berry CollegeClass of 1989
Rome, GA
Michael's Story
August 7, 2009
Well, what a difference over seven months makes! I can't believe it when I read my first story from last December.
We have now located over 180 graduates of Troup High School, and we only have 44 more graduates to find. But to make things more interesting, we have also added all the non-graduates from our Sophomore (1982) and Junior (1983) years at Troup, and several of them have already been located and have sent their RSVP that they are attending our reunion!
Our 25th Reunion is on Sept. 11 and 12! If you were ever a classmate of the class of 84 at Troup, even if you left us while at Troup JUNIOR, you are invited to our 25th reunion and we want to get in touch with you! The best way to to do that is to join the new website for our class! It is TroupTigersClassof84.com. Once you are there, contact me for the password to access the system. Find your name and update your profile and create a new password. If you don't see your name, i.e., if you left us before our Sophomore year, then send me a message from the site to let me know you want in, and once we can confirm you were in school with us, I will put your name into the system and you can log in. It's that easy!
The website has all the information you need about our upcoming reunion, which is now in less than one month! See you online!
~Michael
December 27, 2008
Hi! This is Michael Hendrick. It has been 24 years since we graduated from Troup High School! I've lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the last eight years. I've traveled the world a bit, but my heart will always belong to Troup County, Georgia!
I just joined Classmates.com today (Dec. 27, 2008) in order to get the word out to ask all of you to please come and join Facebook, which is FREE, and to join our new Facebook Group, "Troup County High School Class of 1984".
1. PLEASE JOIN FACEBOOK
2. Join the new Facebook Group: "Troup County High School Class of 1984"
3. AND PLEASE, because Classmates.com is not allowing me to include my e-mail address or phone numbers in this message, please contact me once you have joined Facebook, with your names, e-mail addresses, contact phone numbers and mailing address.
I am sure you are all aware that for our THS Class of 1984, our 25th Reunion would be next year, in 2009...
I don't know if you are familiar with Facebook, but it is an extremely popular global site. I have literally hundreds of "Facebook Friends"- that is, colleagues, college friends and family members, all people I have actually known and/or worked with, gone to school with, etc. But the best part about Facebook is that is is FREE.
The problem with Classmates.com, is that they push everyone to pay a monthly or annual fee to be a member... AND they keep control of e-mail information to themselves... Facebook freely allows all members to enter their contact information, etc.
So the purpose of this letter, is to ask everyone who reads this, to please join Facebook, which is FREE to everyone, and come and join our new group, "Troup County High School Class of 1984".
From our Trouper 1984 yearbook, it seems we did not have "class officers" other than the office of president. We had a "Senior Class Board of Directors". If you still have access to your Trouper 1984 yearbook, you can see on page 64, the photos of the 14 Senior Class Board of Directors and President. I was on the Board (what was I thinking 24 years ago?), from Mrs. Brown's homeroom, along with Michelle Lovvorn. I have listed all the members of the "Board" on the new Facebook group, "Troup County High School Class of 1984".
On Christmas Day, a couple of days ago, on Facebook, I started a new Facebook Group, titled "Troup County High School Class of 1984". I have made this an "Open" group, so that our classmates can easily get into contact. BUT I am encouraging not only our 1984 graduates but even THS Classes of '81 though '87 to join the group. These are the years of people that actually went to school with us. I figure, with this group, the more the merrier, and it will help spread the word to our class of 1984...
Yesterday, I went through the 1984 Trouper and entered everyone's names, as they were 24 years ago, as a starting point... It looks like we had, including the names of those who were listed without a photo, a total of 228 graduates in the Class of 1984...
So far I already have about 20 people (including some from other graduating classes) who have joined the Facebook Group, "Troup County High School Class of 1984". Using this group (and phone calls), I am hoping to gather a group of several people from our class of '84, to divide up the names amongst us, and make phone calls to all our graduating class, searching for their whereabouts, and compile the latest contact information for each of our graduates, and pass on the new contact information to...Expand for more
me, so that I can enter it into the address book.
As of yesterday, as a starting point, I have added all members of our class into the address file, using their names from the 1984 Trouper- our THS yearbook. From what I can tell, including those who were listed without a photo, we had a total of 228 graduates of the Class of 1984.
I'm hoping to get several people from the class of '84 involved to help me compile the contacts... I'm hoping to get several volunteers from our class, and we'll just go through the yearbook and divide it up. (I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.)
if indeed we are just starting to organize a 25th Reunion, I think it is better to have the reunion NEXT CHRISTMAS, not this coming summer... Because our class has not had a reunion in 14 years, it is going to take a MASSIVE effort, to locate all 228 members of our class, and to give them due notice of a 25th Reunion, so that they have any chance to be able to plan to attend... As far spread out as everyone surely is throughout the U.S., at least there would be more of a chance, that most people have families back in LaGrange and might be able to consider returning during that time. I have heard from others who have suggested the summer or the fall, but unless efforts have already been made to organize this, I just don't think it would work unless we give ourselves as much time as possible, and do it near the end of 2009... People will begin thinking about their 25th anniversary in the summer, as well, and will begin to inquire about a reunion and when they do, we could have a specific date set by then, for the Christmas period next year...
As for myself, over the course of the next few months, I am going to be out of the country for four of the next five months, so I won't have a lot of time leading up to June, as I will be working in Moscow & London (January); then Bilbao & Malaga, Spain and even in Manaus, Brazil (March, April and May)... I will not see my own home for three months in a row, until June 1st... I would expect that some families have already made family plans for next summer. I just don't think there is enough time to truly organize a great 25th Reunion for all our class, by the summer.
Because our class has not had a reunion in 14 years, it is going to take a MASSIVE effort, to locate all 228 members of our class, and to give them due notice of a 25th Reunion, so that they have any chance to be able to plan to attend... As far spread out as everyone surely is throughout the U.S., at least there would be more of a chance, that most people have families back in LaGrange and might be able to consider returning during that time. I have heard from others who have suggested the summer or the fall, but unless efforts have already been made to organize this, I just don't think it would work unless we give ourselves as much time as possible, and do it near the end of 2009... People will begin thinking about their 25th anniversary in the summer, as well, and will begin to inquire about a reunion and when they do, we could have a specific date set by then, for the Christmas period next year...
But please understand this is only my perspective. I am happy to abide by whatever consensus James Adams, our president, and our Senior Class Board of Directors may decide to do. Just giving my perspective.
As far as a next step, I shall begin contacting all the other members of the Board of Directors to begin forming a consensus and a way to begin communicating together, as a group... I am sure there are many others who would like to offer their help, from our class. I just figure that the Senior Class Board of Directors, along with James Adams, our class president, would be the best first steps.
So far, I have attempted to first contact James Adams via e-mail, to see what interest he has in a 25th Reunion, if he prefers to be in charge, or if he has any preferences, etc. In addition, so far I have only contacted Susie Pruitt Brandon- using Facebook. Susie is one of the Board of Directors from our class, along with Robin Bailey, from Mrs. Mills' homeroom. Again, all the members of the 1984 Senior Class Board of Directors can be found on page 64 of the 1984 Trouper yearbook.
I will probably seek to contact a few more Board members- including Rhonda Young Mitchell, Darlene Flowers, Stephanie Cameron Odom, Clark Tollerson, etc. I am hoping to get all the Board of Directors onto Facebook so that we can have an easy way to communicate. We could set up a separate Group for this, so that we can make decisions on behalf of the class, then begin getting everyone else involved, as soon as possible.
But first, please join Facebook, and join the new group, "Troup County High School Class of 1984". And please contact everyone you know who went to school with us, to do the same. Thank you very much.
Go Tigers!
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