Jodi M. Clock with her friends from the graduating class of 1979 (Nancy, Robin, Kim, Jodi, Becky and Ginney)          Battle Creek Lakeview Mega High School Reunion 1976-1980

Recently I attended a “Mega Class Reunion” for Battle Creek Lakeview High School’s (LHS) graduating classes of 1976 through 1980. I was the foolish one from my class who volunteered to be on the committee, as we needed to have representatives from all classes on board. The reunion committee came about from a Facebook thread of fellow LHS alumni who were approaching their 35th year, post high school. The rationale was that more people would attend the gathering if there were other classmates invited besides the one’s they graduated with. Initially the plan was to have 1978 and 1979, but when the buzz on Facebook started going viral, it somehow morphed into the theme of ’76, ’77, ’78, ’79 and ’80 can crash it! (It was our attempt of being funny as upperclassmen!)

My role was to help get the word out via e-blasts and social media, as well as putting together both digital photo montages from years past and making a tribute to honor those alumni who have died.Before I go any further, it’s imperative that I give a big shout out of thanks to the other committee members and all of the LHS alumni who communicate via Facebook. Without their help, we could never have pulled this event off.

What I found moving was one of our alumni a few years back started a group called “In memoriam of LHS Spartans” for our deceased teachers and students. What’s even more amazing is that numerous alumni diligently posted the obituaries and photos both past and present of the deceased. From there, others posted memorable moments about that individual and it grew from there. Depending on whom the individual was and the alumni that knew them, it has been known to take on a life of its own. Being in funeral service and having several funeral home locations, I found this to be a beautiful thing. As the date drew nearer, I started to capture the names of the classmates who died and make a list that was sorted by year of graduation. Somewhere in the middle of this process, it became deeply personal. I had no idea that we had lost so many individuals along the way -- and these were just who we have been made aware of! I found myself wanting to know the “why” or “how” they died.

I made the decision to not only place their name, date of birth and date of death along with their graduation photo; I wanted to have a current photo and their obituary on their page as well. I felt that if I wanted to know what happened, it’s only natural that others would also. That was a lofty goal. Much of the information is public and very accessible via the internet, if you know where to look. (Being in funeral service, I have that advantage.) What initially would have been a solid day task, turned into three days’ worth of research. After reading what happened to many of my friends, I then felt horrible for not knowing about their death and never acknowledging their loss to their parents or even just going back to Battle Creek to attend the visitation to support friends. After all, one must practice what they preach.

I was able to seek out a large percentage of the information. However there were a handful of individuals where I could not find a thing, short of contacting their family (and maybe I should have). We had arranged for a classmate who is a pastor to conduct a moment of prayer in their honor and another classmate who is a professional vocalist to sing an appropriate song before the night really kicked into gear. On one of the large screen televisions we had the video playing in a continuous loop for people to watch. Numerous times I would look back there to make sure the video was still playing and each time I’d check, there would be a crowd of people standing dumb struck just like me when I mentally processed how many people we had lost, as well as not realizing who had died. In fact, many of the attendees thought some of these people were going to be at this function.

To place salt on our wounds, a former 1976 classmate had died expectantly less than a week from the event. He was working out at the gym and died of a massive heart attack. He and his wife had RSVPed. Needless to say, it was a real downer. As I mingled with people I hadn't seen or heard from in ages, many of them voiced their appreciation for honoring those individuals and also has asked for a copy of the video. Many people felt the same way I had when I realized whose names were on the deceased’s list. It reminded each of us how fragile life is and that it doesn't matter who you are, what click you were in or how much money you have -- your life can change in an instant. None of us are exempt from death, it just happens to some of us sooner than later.

On the bright side, as a group we have made the decision to establish a college scholarship fund in the memory of those we lost. The objective is to have a $500 annual scholarship given to a student from LHS who is in “financial” need. The decision has been made to have the Battle Creek Community Foundation be in charge of holding the funds and overseeing this, therefore the award will be given without prejudges. Prior to leaving many alumni wrote checks or donated cash. For those who were unable to attend, we’ll be sending an e-blast out informing them. Now that we have a centralized collected list of deceased alumni, on an ongoing basis we plan to add to this and annually update the digital video. It’s an honor to be able to do this, however it’s sobering at best, realizing that the list will grow. I only hope that it doesn't grow fast and that it never exceeds the headcount of those alumni they left behind.

Here is the video if you would like to meet some really great people who left a footprint being a Battle Creek Lakeview “Spartan” and a photo of myself and some of my high school friends.

Click here: LHS Spartan 1976-1980 - A class reunion tribute August 2013