It’s less than two weeks before we gather to celebrate Fenton’s 175th Anniversary and meet with old friends and classmates at our Alumni Reunion.

The Reunion Banquet is being held at the new Air Conditioned Andrew G. Schmidt Middle School just across the parkway from the Fenton High School.

Dinner is served at 6:00PM, but the “Hospitality Room” will be open from 12:00 NOON…there you can chat with old friends and review the memorabilia reflecting your years at Fenton High!

The cost of the dinner is $35 and if you act immediately your check will probably arrive in time. However, if you are concerned about the timing…just phone or email for your reservations. We will collect from you upon your arrival at the dinner. Yes…we still have the honor system at Fenton High School!

Just phone Chuck Montgomery, our FHSAA President at
810-458-4165 or email at cpmumv@charter.net

This year we are pleased to announce that many individuals, who are not former students of FHS, but have had a meaningful relationship with our school…children graduated, etc…have opted to join us at the dinner. This should only enhance your opportunity to say “hello” to old friends.

WHERE? Andrew G. Schmidt School Gym (AGS)
3255 Donaldson Drive
(across from the Fenton High School football field)

WHEN? Arrive from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. – Dinner & Program to follow.

The dinner will be catered by Doug Bosley, manager at Spring Meadows Country Club. It will be buffet style and will include prime rib on the menu. Dress is casual and the gym is air conditioned. Parking at AGS or across Donaldson in the high school parking lot. The Hospitality Room will be set up in the AGS gym and will be open from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 P.m. All items on display are the courtesy of the Fenton Historical Museum and Curator Ken Seger.

Reunion & Dinner tickets are $35 each.
Membership dues for the Fenton Alumni Association is $5 per year.

You can send a check payable to the Fenton High School Alumni Association and mail it with a self addressed, stamped envelop (to receive your tickets) to:

Fenton High School Alumni Association, Inc.
P.O. Box 961
Fenton, MI 48430

Please also include your name, address, telephone number, graduating class year and e-mail address.

http://www.classreport.org/usa/mi/fenton/fhs/1985/

The following is reprinted with permission from the author, Stacy L:
http://www.thatdamnredhead.net/2009/03/10/the-internet-is-one-big-expo-what-is-your-booth-like/

This past weekend I helped out at the annual Fenton Community Expo, which is a pretty big deal around here. It’s organized by the Fenton Regional Chamber, and gets bigger and bigger every year. Last year we had over 5,000 attendees, and though official numbers have yet to be released, I’m sure we got a heck of a lot more, thanks in part to free admission (courtesy of The State Bank) and free cake (courtesy of VG’s) to commemorate the Expo’s 25th anniversary.

If you’ve never been to a community expo, it’s a lot like a trade show, in that different businesses set up booths in a big area (in this case, the Fenton High School gym and halls) and showcase their products and services to attendees. Except in a community expo there really isn’t an underlying theme (electronics, for example) — it’s a pot pourri of local businesses in the community. Everything from banks to optometrists to makeup people to funeral homes to people selling astroturf. There are drawings, a petting zoo, derby races, entertainment I never pay attention to, and lots of free promotional swag. Most people in the community go to enter the various drawings held and get the free stuff. Oh yeah, and to check out the local businesses and organizations there.

As I wandered around the expo after my half-day shift of selling 50/50 raffle tickets, I couldn’t help but notice that a business expo was a lot like the internet. (Hear me out on this one, k?)

Attendees of the expo were walking around, browsing the different businesses who had set up booths. Think of the attendees as internet users, and the businesses’ booths as their websites and/or social media presences.

I noticed that there were three different kinds of booth:

Booths that had great displays but barely any people at them.
Booths that had OK displays that had some people at them.
Booths that had so many people at them that you couldn’t even see their displays.
Booths in Category #1 had one or two people at them just standing there, or perhaps sitting, watching people walk by. Some people maybe took a brochure or a pen that was sitting on a table, but there was very little, if any, engagement between the business and the passers-by. These booths reminded me of those businesses with the “build it and they will come” mentality, those who think that if they have a great looking website, that’s all they need and business should flock to them. Only, it doesn’t. Why? Because they’re doing nothing to engage with their visitors. Having a pretty site and a contact form that says “start a conversation” on your website is the equivalent of having a pretty display booth but just sitting there passively, expecting people to come talk to you. Guess what? Prospective customers aren’t likely to talk to you if you don’t talk to them first. (Believe it or not, the local funeral home’s booth was more lively than these ones.)

Booths in Category #2 were the most common. Their displays weren’t stellar but that didn’t matter — they were at least talking to people who walked by, handed them some information about their company, and in addition to a raffle, they usually had some kind of promotional item a little less common than a pen — maybe a chip clip, maybe a koozie, a coffee cup, a pad of sticky notes — something a little more memorable and useful. These are the businesses who might get some new customers after the expo, but no guarantees and really, they’re just happy to be there and happy to get whatever exposure they can. Paralleling this to the web, these would be the businesses who not only had a website but were minimally active in social media, perhaps they had a Facebook page and/or a blog and/or a Twitter account, but they’re not as active as they probably could be.

Then there were a few booths in Category #3 who are the rock stars of the expo. They’re the ones that have all the other exhibitors jealous and wishing all those people were at their booth. My buddy Raul is one of those exhibitors — you literally have to stand on your tippy-toes to see what all the fuss is about at his booth. Raul is the marketing manager for Financial Plus Credit Union, and every year hoards of kids and adults gather ’round the FPCU booth and play games for some pretty cool prizes. Everybody working at the booth is talking to everybody that walks by and nobody is bypassed. This year, he brought a Wii and kids were waiting in line to play. What does playing Wii have to do with a credit union? Nothing, really, but when it comes time for local kids to get their first checking account, which of the 20+ banks and credit unions in the area do you think the kids are going to remember? That’s right — Financial Plus. I’m not much for video games but I played a trivia game and won a pen like no other — it’s some kind of hybrid ergonomic pen/hi-lighter/laser-shooter deal that’s unlike any writing utensil I’ve ever seen. (OK, so it doesn’t shoot lasers, but it might as well.)

My favorite dentist, Dr. Patty, is another of the expo rock stars every year. Though she usually doesn’t have quite the crowd that Raul has, every year she and her hygienists are there making balloon animals, talking to people, and educating them about good dental hygeine at the same time. This year she was giving away entire dental hygiene kits for kids that included a toothbrush, floss, stickers, mouthwash, the whole nine yards. Dr. Patty is a dentist and kids and parents alike flock to her booth. Kids are generally afraid of dentists, but Dr. Patty breaks the mold and appeals to them.

Expo rock stars like Raul and Dr. Patty know that the secrets to having a popular booth, thus a popular business, are content and engagement. And this is no different from the web. If you have great content and engage with your audience online, you are bound to have a stronger presence and thus more business. Think HubSpot. Think Cision. Think David Meerman Scott. Heck, think Urbane Apartments. Chock-full of content and engagement. It’s no wonder they’re regarded as top dogs in their respective fields.

If your web presence were comparative to an expo or trade show, which category do you think it would fall into? Would you be an expo rock star like Raul or Dr. Patty, or would you be the business with a great display and a booth that everybody walked by? If you’ve ever participated in a similar event, which of the three categories of booths did you belong to?

Tickets will run $75 and include a whole host of fun activities.  To kick of “Casey Kasem Day,” there will be a viewing of the movie “Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico” at the St. John Gymnasium below the main floor of the St. John Activity Center.  Seating for the Scooby-Doo movie will begin at two-thirty in the afternoon and the show will start at three o’clock.  At five o’clock in the evening, ticket holders can join Casey Kasem for an intimate dinner in the Grand Hall of the Saint John’s Activity Center.  Food for this event will be provided by The French Laundry.  Following, at eight o’clock in the evening, a concert with Mr. Kasem and John Waite will be held at the Fenton High School Auditorium.

Tickets for just the Scooby-Doo movie will be $5 per child or $20 for the whole family.  These tickets can be purchased at the Fenton Community and Cultural Center or Little Professor Book Store.  Tickets may also be available for purchase at the door.  Committee members Dave Ameen, Bob Burek, Pat Lockwood, Jan Rynearson, Dawn Placek, Shelly Day, Raul Alarez, Maria Dockens, Bob Cole, Roger Sharp or Brian Petty can also assist you in securing the full $75 event tickets as well.

The vote was held at a meeting on April 7, 2008.  The community was sharply divided on the subject, as reflected in the narrow margin on the vote.  Voting against the proposed realignment were: Ken Elston, Lynn Hopper, Rick DesJardins and Ken Ellis. Voting for the proposed realignment were: President Dave Walker, Vice President Nora Kryza and Secretary Julie Steffey.

Tickets available at:
Bittersweet Café, Holly
Little Professors Book Center, Fenton
Additional information is at: kidztheatrekompany.org
Or Call Katie Carr at 810-735-5313

Written by Hans Christian Andersen adapted by R. Eugene Jackson with music by Carl AletteProduced by special arrangement with Pioneer Drama Service, Inc. Englewood, Colorado

Click above pic twice slowly to start the video.

In the meantime, imagine sitting on the hard wood of the bleacher seats and feast your eyes on some nice footwork and point scoring. Go Tigers!!

Click the picture of the video above twice slowly to get the video started.

We will be talking with our classes this coming week and collecting donations at school and around the community all year long. We are hoping to have some new trees planted next spring. We are, of course, very grateful that injuries from the tornado were few, but the loss of so many 100 year old trees is a great loss to the city. It is so sad, but we hope to make a difference. I have a Powerpoint display or individual pictures that I took of the storm and also of the parks during July of this year. I was working on collecting pictures for a webpage for the parks so I have both before and after pictures of the parks.

Donations will be gladly accepted at Tomek-Eastern Elementary at 600 Fourth St. Fenton, Michigan 48430. Thank you for any publicity you can give to this cause.”