My days of retirement continue to be filled with travel, organizational involvement and other numerous activities and one of them which I truly enjoy is with the Booker T. Washington Alumni Assoc.

We hold reunions semi-annually and in the year 2005 will honor all alumni members who chose careers in law enforcement. During a meeting on last Saturday, I was asked to work with John Riddick in contacting these students.

One of the goals of the BTW Alumni Assoc. is to honor a profession and those alumni members who chose that particular profession. Therefore, we voted on the theme for 2005, &uot;The Many Faces of Law Enforcement Protecting Our Freedom.&uot; To lessen the likelihood of excluding anyone, we are asking those who read this column if you or anyone you know fits this description please contact John Riddick, Evelyn Wall, or any alumni member or write to the BTW Alumni Association at P.O. Box 3482, Suffolk, Va. 23439. Letters will be going out soon to these students to let them know what is needed to be included in our souvenir booklet and the part that they will be required to play during the event that will be voted upon to recognize these honorees. So we need these names as soon as possihle.

In past years we have honored our school musical instructors, athletes in all sports, clergy and in 2003, health care workers.

Our school as we knew it, the Booker T. Washington High School graduated its last class in 1969 so there could be numerous students out there who made law enforcement a career. We are classifying our alumni members as anyone who attended Booker T. Washington High School for one week or one year, while some schools only accept graduates as alumni members. But this brings a concern to mind that some alumni organizations have asked me to write about in the past.

As a full-time reporter I have attended and covered many school and class reunions, and many of them have the same problem-very small local student participation compared to out-of-town-participation. Ross Boone, the president of East Suffolk Alumni Association, and I discussed this at their last reunion last summer. I was surprised at the large student body and the below average local attendance for the size of the school.

In talking with a few former students who attended Booker T. I have gotten excuses like they don’t want to think about the past,

they feel disconnected to members who graduated in other classes, or they couldn’t afford the price that was being asked to attend. These people are missing the reason that reunions are held.

Here are some examples. If not for your school and instructors, you may not have landed that great job or met your lifetime mate. On the subject of mates, many romances which resulted in marriages began in school and may not have taken place otherwise.

Your school is a part of your roots and you should honor it the same as you would your family roots. Your education has played the biggest role in what you have become.

On Saturday, Oct. 30, my class of 1962 held a Fellowship Dinner Dance Banquet for its 42nd reunion that included the class of 1963. Some of these students had never attended any reunions and had such a good time that they stated they didn’t want to be left out of another event of this nature. The prices that have been voted upon to attend are usually reasonable and class sponsors give ample time for former students to pay for them.

In most cases you will bring away more from your event than what you put in it because it is also the perfect time to get acquainted with old friends while making new ones.

To help you make up your mind whether or not you will participate, remember that s-ccess can’t be spelled without &uot;u&uot; and with your attendance &uot;u&uot; can help to make your reunion a big success.

Evelyn Wall is a regular News-Herald columnist. Reach her at evelyn.wall@suffolknewsherald.com