How to throw a party for a whole class (08/20/2008)

Some things are easier to face with others than all alone.

Like birthdays.

After the age of, say, 21, no one much gets a kick out of turning older. But the calendar doesn't care, and those birthdays keep rolling around.

A couple of weeks ago, some old friends gathered together to make the passing of another birthday milestone a little easier to bear.

By the time New Year's Eve rolls around, every single member of my high school graduating class will have turned 60. And even though we keep telling ourselves it's "the new 40," you have to admit that those birthdays with a zero on the end have a way of getting your attention.

That was the reasoning behind a 60th birthday party for the entire class.

I was one of the skeptics about the whole thing, operating in full wet-blanket mode and convinced that it would be a bust.

Boy, was I wrong.

If I'd been in charge, it never would have gotten off the ground.

Fortunately, I wasn't in charge. Instead, two other members of Portland High School's class of 1966 - Melodi Haley and Steve McKee - provided the leadership to make it happen.

So how do you throw a birthday party for that many people? Here are a few suggestions based upon this month's festivities:

•Start planning early and get a committee together that meets face to face. That's how I got roped into the process. A single meeting knocked down my skepticism and had me sold on the idea.

•Set a date and let people know about it again and again and again. E-mails were sent out, regular mail was sent out, and both processes were repeated.

•Keep it casual. You need a bit of structure, but you don't want it to become an ordeal. It's supposed to be a party after all. If folks want to come in shorts, fine. If they want to dress up a bit, that's fine too.

•Be prepared to be a little silly. That doesn't mean you have to play pin the tail on the donkey, but our party featured a trivia contest on rock lyrics from the 1950s and 1960s and a gag gift exchange. And we let our hair down enough that we actually sang "Happy Birthday" to ourselves. And, yes, we did have birthday cake.

•Make it affordable, but charge something. We had a great dinner catered by Fisher's - Janice is a member of our class - but we only charged $5 a head. The class fund and donations subsidized the meal expense. By charging a little bit, we were able to firm up reservations and nudged people into making a commitment. By keeping the price so low, we eliminated cost as a deterrent for attendance.

In our case, the day started at 1 p.m. on the final Saturday of fair week. I'd made arrangements for the Jay County Historical Society's museum to be open from 1 to 2 p.m., and several classmates stopped by to look at the displays.

(It was a little unnerving to see memorabilia from our own era under glass as historic relics.)

From 2 to 3 p.m., John Jay Center for Learning was open so out of town classmates could see the restoration of the Weiler Building.

Then from about 3 p.m. on folks gathered at the Portland Golf Club.

It didn't cost a fortune. It didn't put a huge burden on anyone. And it made the prospect of my official birthday in November a little easier to handle.[[In-content Ad]]