First, a bit of tech geeking because it's got me tied in knots.

Mea culpa, folks. I was in charge of sending out the .pdf with the brand spankin new Shorewood High School, Shorewood, Wisconsin Alumni Newsletter and I did so by protecting the names on the list by utilizing the well-known best-kept secret of the bcc, the blind carbon copy. And so, now I realize, many of the bounced back emails are not bad addresses, they just like to get first-class mail! So, what to do, what to do. In hindsight, I would wait a bit, create a "proper" csv and mailing group to send it which hopefully also hides the addresses. I'm sorry folks, I really just wanted to get it out to you asap, before yet another day went by!  It is now available at the school site, too, please have a looksie. There have been a lot of GREAT responses, though, so let's move on!

This flurry of alumni contact got me to thinking. People email to find out about when, what, who, where's the reunion or goings-on site for each graduating alumni class.  There are a lot of commercial websites out there that make things confusing, so soon there will be a website just for SHS Alumni to find pictures and news per class..it just isn't built yet. In the meantime, though, there will be a list of websites on the SHS Alumni Website for every class that has sent something in(send urls to shorewoodconnection@gmail.com) not just reunion year classes.  Thought this would be kind of fun. It's all good, really.  Friends of mine are getting in touch with me after years and years - this should be able to happen to everyone. It's exciting!  I'm also thinking SHS should have some kind of set event in the summer to welcome back everyone - not just reunionites - and have kind of a low-key lunch on the lawn, open up the school, meet the principal and asst principal and superintendent..that kind of thing. It could be longer than the standard 50 minute lunch hour even!  Or maybe the contact info of the Person with the Keys is all anyone needs, for those (like me) who like to believe they are spontaneous and happily random and would like to wander about, stop at Sendik's, pay a ridiculously high amount for tasty chicken salad and Gerolsteiner, and say Hmm, I wonder if the school is open?  A note - check the rec dept. schedule - there are classes all summer during the day already, hint hint. As one friend put it, "I am going to bring my kids and walk around with rose-colored glasses" about Shorewood. Hurrah! Let me work on making sure that they get to see a Shorewood school (or two!). If you have alumni ideas or druthers, the SHS Alumni Association would really like to know (saves us the big $$ on a survey, right?):  Email to shorewoodconnection@gmail.com. 

Here is a resource list of web addresses about Shorewood:

Shorewood High School Alumni Newsletter:Shorewood High School, Shorewood, Wisconsin Alumni Newsletter

Shorewood School System Website that has everything from the lunch menu to the calendar to who's winning the scholarships and what awards the school is winning these days: www.shorewoodschools.org  For a fact sheet and to see nostalgia-evoking simple photos of SHS, SIS, Atwater and Lake Bluff, check out http://www.walkshorewood.com/shoreSchoolsFacts.html.

Shorewood Walking Tour (Order your own snazzy packet through this site (see bottom left icon to order) and there is a detailed Shorewood Map there for your left brain to walk the right down memory lane): http://www.walkshorewood.com/home.html

Today I have to send some late Mother's Day cards. I had the best and coolest intentions about six months ago..If they only knew how busy I've been getting people connected! I guess that doesn't count for moms though.  And it seems to be Birth Week amongst the pregger friends I have..happy birthday to all those May Babes and new and refreshed moms.  Congrats getting it in before the end of school! Makes bdays easier up to about 6th grade.

Time for just a little more coffee..wish me luck on my 50-page final for Monday.

Yours in faithful keeping of the global delivery of the look/touch/feel of Shorewood Village.

Oh and Riverbrook is closed. !?  I was not thinking it was happening so soon!

-See you 'round the village!

I am touched.  I am reeling from the fact that I got a beautiful sweet-smelling large bouquet of flowers from my dentist yesterday (who does kids and adults and has the most awesomely kid-friendly practice I could ever have imagined - seriously).  This nice gesture literally stopped me in my tracks, made me take a huge deep breath and wipe a tear off my cheek (I even made a place for them on the dining room table -  no small feat!).  Thank you, and really, now I'm turning it into something more.

I am now embarking on a new quest to find the answers for our fair village and bring a smile to other faces who haven't felt one in a while.  I want to embrace the other alums like me who are dedicated in our hearts to memories of Shorewood Schools and want to do something, something that will be good, maybe ensure our legacy and make a difference, something that will pleasantly suprise people who live in the village who are dutifully but dubiously supporting the referendum on April 1st.  Am I talking endowment? Am I talking fundraising? I don't know what it looks like on paper, or in legal form. We have a serious committee for that with lawyers and accountants and things, and we're just in the planning stages.  The heart of what I'm talking about is being mindful of and appreciating alumni all over the world, including in Shorewood, Wisconsin, who really would like to be able to share their passion for the Shorewood education and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the good and loyal people of this village to support not only the sports field (and thank you D2D for initiating alumni giving) but the education and  physical schools of the district.  Right now, yours truly has volunteered (thanks to this grad program at UWM, Helen's nap schedule and Henry's new addiction to Cyberchase), to spearhead a Development Committee for the Shorewood Alumni Association.  I want to find out from everyone who knows or has an opinion what the best way to steward all these awesome alums - some famous, and some happily anonymous, in supporting their alma mater in a way that would be intensely personally satisfying and would also answer the real needs of the district.  The referendum will cover necessary immediate needs, and is hugely significant and relevant. I am concerned when I hear taxpayers say the enrollment is down anyway, why support it. This is a treasure we're sitting on, and I am eager to let the alumni help it thrive as well. This is the opposite of the coerced at-work giving, where one is pounded from above to cough up cash in order to wear pants to work, or is pressured into having money drawn out every paycheck for a worthy yet unchosen by the donor cause.  It's going to be great, it's going to make people happy, and it is going to help Shorewood to get back in touch with its roots and all the lives its touched in its long history.

I am just going to try to help get the school's ducks (and than-you notes) in a row, so if someone decides to bequest the school in a will, or endow the school's English Dept or Latin Dept (which there isn't one currently) Chair, the school, or the alumni assn, knows what to do.  Seriously, just trying to make the right biz and financial decisions now as part of the office support and 501(c)(3) tax exemption verifications so if you send us Aunt Izzie's check for a new sound mixing board (not covered under the referendum, say), we can communicate with you and make sure Izzie iz Acknowledged and that the money is properly handled.

If anyone has thoughts, feel free to email me. I'll be on vacation! Ha ha. Just kidding. As anyone who knows me can attest, I'm beholden to my email, and I encourage your feedback if you'd like to keep it off this blog.  I'll be driving to Omaha and KC next week, just me and the kids, but I'll be back.  This is a big deal, it makes my chest kind of tight thinking about the largesse, and I'm committed to maintaining a community of alumni that extends far beyond Shorewood, Wisconsin and comes to wherever you or yours may find yourselves these days.  How to do this with heart, and make sure it is thoughtful and clever and responsible?  Your comments are helpful, this is your school.

UPDATE: there is a blog you should read. It made me cry: http://www.helenegresser.com/2008/03/shorewood.html

This is my first entry in what will hope to be an amusing, informative, and educational blog about life in Shorewood, or "Vatican City" as one reporter used to refer to our village, the same geographic size as the Vatican.  I grew up here, or well, moved here when I was in third grade and graduated SHS in '86. So, technically, by Village standards, I "didn't really" go here the whole way through. At my 20th reunion someone remarked that I was absent from the K4 pictures! Nope, I was in (hold breath) MPS.  And yes, I did just reveal my age.  Now I have no secrets. Our realtor mentioned when we were looking at a house in 2004 that "In Shorewood, there is just one degree, not six" and it's true, so here I am.

I am going to write a few ongoing columns within this column, reporting on things that I find hilarious, great, appalling, and little-known about Shorewood. I feel it's time to use my powers for good and let my history be useful for things (other than noting that I have never, ever looked good in the VHS pool locker room mirror).  I will get over my feelings of loss about the Shorewood Bakery (at some point) and share my elation that upon moving back to Shorewood after 20 years to raise my family and share Shorewood with my husband and, now, two children, that there is no fee to use the beach at Atwater. Amazing! Every summer I'd cull the house for small change in hopes I could join my friends down there. Now, it's gratis (though I realize, that is another issue). I hope to interview people who have raised children in Shorewood and find out their stories, as I am grateful to them for their wisdom and dedication to our village.  To me, Shorewood is "where grandma lives" even though my own family is not here. 

So dear reader, know that I care deeply about this community. Enough so to move back because of three things: comfort, connection, and community.  I feel so much support in Shorewood --  my children have grandparents here whenever we walk in to City Market, I have friends from before who are golden and new friends who know me only as an adult, and I can thrive as an multifunctioning mom/artist/grad student/teacher/wife/ and dye my hair burnt orange (now I match the baby) as kind of an accident and wear pink boots and be just fine in this town.  I represent old Shorewood and new Shorewood. I am proud of our school district and realize what a very special, intergenerational village we have here.  So pat yourself on the back for your choice to be part of our interwoven community, but don't slip on the ice! See you 'round the village!