Cross Reunion On Tap For March 28

by Jake Halpern The New Haven independent

The following writeup was submitted by Wilbur Cross PTSA President Jake Halpern.

Last year I wrote a short piece in the New Haven Independent about a new idea we were trying at Wilbur Cross: an all-classes reunion. In the article, I promised: Everyone who ever went to Wilbur Cross will be there. 

It was a joke. Or at least mostly a joke.

It was the first time we had ever tried something like this, and I was skeptical it would work.

Then about 750 people showed up.

Graduates from the last 50 years. Teachers. Students. Administrators. They streamed into the atrium while the Wilbur Cross percussion band played and Chef Bradshaw and his award-winning culinary team prepared breakfast. The building filled with the easy, slightly disbelieving energy of a place rediscovering itself.

People ate. They hugged. They tried to remember names.

One of the most remarkable scenes unfolded in the cafeteria. We had laid out a big table covered with hundreds of old photographs: sports teams, theater productions, clubs, graduating classes stretching back decades. People leaned over the tables and began flipping through them. Every few seconds someone would shout out a name. A classmate. A teammate. An ex-boyfriend. A favorite teacher. The space became a time machine. Memories flooded back.  Laughter echoed.  Tears streamed. 

It was pure magic.    

The reunion was a success.

So we’re doing it again.

On Saturday, March 28, from 10 a.m. to noon, Wilbur Cross will host its second annual all-classes reunion. Several hundred people have already signed up. Chef Bradshaw is preparing another massive breakfast. The first-floor halls will be open so alumni can wander through the building, revisit old classrooms and hangouts, and reconnect with teachers they may never have had the chance to properly thank.

We’ll also have tables filled with old yearbooks and copies of the Wilbur Cross Proclamation. There will be school merchandise, sweatshirts, hats, and T-shirts. There will be opportunities to support the school. And there will be something new this year that I’m especially excited about: an oral history booth. Think of it as a small version of NPR’s StoryCorps. Alumni will be able to sit down and record a short memory from their time at Wilbur Cross. Those stories will become part of a growing audio archive that captures what this place has meant to generations of students.

For years people asked the same question: why do all the fancy private schools and suburban high schools have reunion traditions, while Wilbur Cross doesn’t?

Now it does.

We’re building a reunion culture here, and it’s off to a pretty strong start. Last year 750 people came. This year we’d love to break that record.

If you went to Wilbur Cross, consider this your invitation. Bring a friend. Bring a classmate. Bring a story.  Sign up on the link below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScsrRV5p2Taz9RA3gYJso3mCVVC_WDnqYM44Bi1lpdVjAocsg/viewform