Postcards: All Community Reunion

Fallon’s mayor, Ken Tedford, is committed to connecting the community to the wider world – if and when the community can benefit. So, when the entire globe celebrated the Millenium, Fallon celebrated the Millenium. Mayor Tedford formed a Millenium Commission, which planned a series of events to bring the community together and celebrate our heritage. Those events included a Millenium Ball and a recreation of the famous Fallon PTA parade, wherein classes adopted a theme (think bookworms or astronauts), dressed up accordingly and marched down Maine Street to Oats Park. That event produced fond memories for generations of Fallon students. Another one of the mayor’s plans for the Millenium celebration was to create and leave a permanent memorial of the event. In response, the Commission envisioned, planned and completed Millenium Park on the corner of Maine and Williams, with its stately clock rising like a beacon to welcome all. A time capsule was buried there so that future Fallonites can peer back in time to the year 2000 and see what we were up to. 

When Fallon turned one hundred years old in 2008, the mayor formed a Centennial Commission. This time, in addition to planning events and activities, the Commission oversaw the building of Centennial Stage, the outdoor theater that hosts performances in Oats Park. 

Hence, when the Sesquicentennial year loomed, Mayor Tedford appointed a Sesquicentennial Commission. Sesquicentennial is quite a word, but it simply means a one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of an event. In 2014, Nevada turned one hundred and fifty years old, having achieved statehood in 1864, so another birthday party was in order. The Commission fielded many ideas, both for events and permanent projects. The lasting legacy this time was not one of bricks and mortar. It was the inauguration of the All-Community Reunion. With its current record of success, it may even outlast bricks and mortar.

I want to give credit where credit is due, and it goes to Susan McCormick for conceiving the idea for the reunion and carefully planning its development. 

Even before the Sesquicentennial celebration, Susan had brought up the point to me and others that Churchill County High School class reunions were “all over the place” – held at various times, with class committees scrambling to avoid calendar conflicts, book venues, caterers, and music, many times at odds with one another. “Why,” thought Susan, “couldn’t all class reunions occur on one date, at a central location, with shared catering and entertainment.” She had taken note of the fact that in Ely and Hawthorne reunions were held that way, as a community-wide event serving to unite the members of all classes and the general community.

Next came a happy confluence of people, organizations, and abilities. The Churchill Arts Council and the City of Fallon had already held joint concerts on Oats Park’s Centennial Stage. Why not plan the reunion around a performance?  Susan and her committee approached the Churchill County Museum, the Fallon Theater and the “Old High School,” asking if they could plan tours. The committee’s philosophy was that local organizations and businesses should plan their own (potentially money making) events to further the general economy of the community. For example, the first reunion breakfast was held by the Elks at the Elks Hall. The Greenwave Boosters sold hot dogs and hamburgers at the first reunion concert. Rick Gray, Director of Fallon Events and Tourism and Candy Dolan, his assistant, encouraged the Reunion Committee to pitch the event as an economic boon for the whole community. And, it proved to be.

Susan remembers a few details that make the first event seem somewhat rustic in comparison to the evolved event. The original committee members weren’t sure whether they would have an attendance of ten or a thousand. There were no porta-potties; classes brought their own tables and chairs; advertisements and programs were produced by members of the committee on their own computers; they even rounded up what they guessed would be enough garbage cans. Now the City of Fallon provides a big tent, luxury bathrooms, Industrial dumpsters, fireworks, and plenty of staff. 

Incidentally, one of Susan’s fondest reunion memories is of a group of 79 plus year olds celebrating their 50^th reunion by dancing around the park in a conga line.

The seeds were sown, and the crop has been bountiful. See this year’s schedule of events on page 12. 

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