CHSAA Memorial Scholarships

A reminder that memorial scholarships have been set up for both Mike Caito and Andrew Zabierek through the CHSAA. Any donations you'd like to make should be mailed to the CHSAA office @ 200 Richardson Rd. Chelmsford, MA 01863. Please make sure to indicate which scholarship you wish to donate to in the "memo" field. All checks should be made payable to CHSAA. Please email me if you have any questions about this.

Thanks,
Jessica McSheehy Del Llano

CHSAA 4th of July parade float

I have been appointed chair of the Chelmsford High School Alumni Association 4th of July float committee! The committee right now consists of...well, just me, and I can't do this by myself, so that's why I need you!

We've got a flatbad truck, and now we need a theme and a volunteer crew of alumni (family and friends of alumni, too) to plan and create this masterpiece! If you're interested in being part of the planning committee, it won't be a huge time committment (maybe 2 meetings). However, once work begins on the float (depending on the theme that's ultimately chosen) we're going to need a nice big crew of volunteers ready to get their hands dirty. I'd really appreciate any time you can give!

I want this to be a huge success for the CHSAA! Its going to be FUN!!

Please let me know if you'd like to be involved, and in what capacity. Thanks!!

Take care,
Jessica McSheehy Del Llano :)

P.S. The 2005 4th of July parade is happening on Saturday, July 2.

Tina (Gehr) Mendoza

We send our best wishes to classmate Tina (Gehr) Mendoza, who is preparing to deploy to Iraq until April 2006.

Please keep Tina and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

If anyone would like to send Tina well-wishes, I have an email address for her that she will be checking while in Iraq.

Take care,
Jessica McSheehy Del Llano

Article in Lowell Sun regarding the CHS Alumni Association Scholarship Fund

Performance by Anna Dagmar (Johnson) - class of 1996

Anna Dagmar (Johnson) will be performing as a featured songwriter at Brookline Community Center for the Arts on Wednesday, Oct. 6. Located at 14 Green Street in Brookline, MA, more information can be found at www.bccaonline.com or on Anna's website at www.annadagmar.com. Anna puts on a great show, I highly recommend you attend this performance! :)

CHSAA Annual Meeting

Everyone is invited to attend the Chelmsford High School Alumni Association Annual Meeting next Wednesday, September 15, 2004. The past year's business of the CHSAA will be discussed in overview, and refreshments will be served. Find out what the CHSAA has been up to, and why you should be a part of it. Please email me if you have any questions about it.

Date: September 15, 2004
Place: Skip's Restaurant, Chelmsford (back function room)
Time: 7:30pm

Hope to see you there!

Jessica :)

CHSAA fall newsletter

Dear Classmates,
I apologize for the short notice, but this deadline snuck up on me. The Chelmsford High School Alumni Association is about to publish its fall issue of The Lions Pride newsletter. If you have any news you'd like to share, please email me by next Friday, September 17.

News can be anything about yourself, including (but not limited to):
-where you're currently living
-where you currently work or attend school
-engagements/weddings/babies
-recent vacations, interesting hobbies
-or just say hi, share your email address and let classmates know you'd love to hear from them

Andrew Zabierek

I have a special request to anyone who might be interested in writing a short piece for the newsletter about Andrew Zabierek. I think it would be best coming from someone who knew him well. If you are interested, please let me know. Again, I apologize for the short notice. I hope those of you who were close with him will consider it.

Michael Caito Memorial Scholarship Fund

The family of Mike Caito has started the Michael Caito Memorial Scholarship Fund for the CHS Alumni Association. If you are interested in making a donation in any amount towards the scholarship, please send a check made payable to CHSAA (with a short note indicating it should go towards Mike's scholarship fund) to:
CHSAA
200 Richardson Rd.
Chelmsford, MA 01863
Attn: George Simonian

New members! Yay!

We have gained 2 new members since I started this grassroots campaign to increase the Class of 1996's presence in the CHSAA. Since we started with only 9 members, every single new member counts and is greatly appreciated. A 1-year membership is only $10 (5 years for $40). Click on the link under the picture of the Lion on this page for the membership application and more information about the association.

I hope you all are well, and look forward to receiving your news to share in the newsletter!

Take care,
Jessica McSheehy Del Llano

More on Mike Caito

Here's a link to the Lowell Sun story on Mike Caito.

Michael Caito

Unfortunately, I am the bearer of more sad news. Michael Caito passed away this past weekend. I'm sorry I don't have details beyond that at this time. Our deepest condolences go out to his family and friends. If you're hoping to attend any services that may be planned, my suggestion would be to check The Lowell Sun website for details, as I assume a notice will be posted there in the near future. Nothing was posted as of today, Thursday 7/1/04.

Take good care,
Jessica McSheehy Del Llano

Membership update

So far, no new memberships in the CHS Alumni Association from the class of 1996. Don't delay! I know plenty of you have every intention of joining up. You can download the membership application right from the menu on the right side of this page. Mail it in with $10 and you're all set for a year (or $40 for 5 years).

The Class of 2004 (who haven't even walked in graduation yet) already have more members in the CHSAA than we do.

We really can do better than that.

Take care,
Jessica McSheehy Del Llano

Andrew Zabierek

It is with great sadness that I tell you that we have lost a classmate. Andrew Zabierek was killed when he was struck by a vehicle Friday night, while serving in the Marine Corps in Iraq. We have no details yet about funeral services, but I'm certain that information will be available in the Lowell Sun in the coming days. You may access the Lowell Sun online at www.lowellsun.com. Below is a link to the article about this tragedy.

Lowell Sun article

My thoughts and prayers are with those of you who were close with Andy. This is a great loss to the class of 1996.

Take good care,
Jessica

Happy Spring! It’s newsletter time!

The Chelmsford High School Alumni Association newsletter, The Lion’s Pride, is about to publish its summer issue and needs news on what the Class of 1996 is up to. The deadline is May 14th to submit your news to me (but the sooner, the better).

It'd be great if you could email me with a blurb about your life, work, adventures, whatever. Even if you just want to say you’d love to hear from people and post your email address. That’s cool.

The most common entries go like this:

Classmate A is living in Hudson, NH and works as a marketing rep for a large chain of furniture stores. She’s engaged to Random Guy with plans for a June wedding in Chelmsford.

OR

Congratulations to Classmate B, who ran the Boston Marathon in April for the second time! He lives in Brookline, MA and encourages former classmates to get in touch with him at classmateB@email.com.

Seriously, one or two lines are all you need (but feel free to tell us more). Here are some ideas to get you started. You don’t have to get detailed.

-Where are you living?
-Where do you work?
-Still in school? What are you studying?
-Have any recent accomplishments you want to brag about?
-Are you engaged or married?
-Do you have any children?
-Have you taken any fun vacations recently?
-Post your email address/website

Share your news!

You can join the Chelmsford High School Alumni Association (and receive The Lion’s Pride newsletter) by downloading the membership application from the link on the right of this page.

I hope all is well!

Thanks,
Jessica :)

Please send me your email address!

Thanks for checking out this page. If you're here, you probably received one of those annoying "Classmates Mail" things from me. The thing is, classmates.com won't give out your email address, so if I'm going to get in touch with anyone listed there, it has to be through classmates mail and honestly, it totally sucks. I'd appreciate if you'd email me so that at least I know what your correct email address is, and I promise I won't give it out, or endlessly SPAM you. I just want to have a contact list, especially come reunion time. We'll definitely want to be able to reach you then!

Update 3/12/04: I have 80 email addresses so far in our class contact list, but we've got a long way to go! If you're still in touch with other classmates, it would be greatly appreciated if, along with your own email address, you could send me a list of those of any other classmates you have in your email address book.

Thanks! Keep reading below for more info...

The Chelmsford High School Alumni Association needs you!

Dear Classmate,

Membership in the Chelmsford High School Alumni Association is down. The class of 1996 has the worst membership of any CHS graduating class (that's including the most recent graduates in 2003). Currently there are 9 active members of the CHSAA from the class of 1996. We graduated 350 strong. What happened to our school spirit?!

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” President John F. Kennedy spoke those words in his inaugural speech. They are important words to remember at a time like this. I’ve heard all of the questions regarding why you should join, most often “what do I get out of it?” Here’s your answer: The satisfaction of knowing you helped with the important work of keeping this organization going. It’s not about you receiving newsletters or t-shirts or anything like that (although members do receive 3 issues of “The Lion’s Pride” newsletter per year, as well as reunion updates). It’s about giving back to Chelmsford High School. CHS did so much for all of us, and its time to return the favor.

The Alumni Association prides itself on giving tens of thousands of dollars in scholarship money each year to CHS graduates (not just graduating seniors, any alumni can apply for scholarship money). We support and recognize CHS graduates not only with scholarships, but with our annual Hall of Fame awards ceremony for distinguished and accomplished alumni. The Alumni Association is always working to foster the spirit of Chelmsford High School graduates. Your membership dues are not just a fee, it’s a donation towards the future of the Chelmsford High School Alumni Association, and will continue the good work that the association does for all graduates of CHS. Its money well spent.

Here’s my challenge to you. Download the CHSAA Membership Application here. Fill it out and send it in with your $10 annual membership dues (or $40 for a 5-year membership). The address to send it is:

CHSAA
200 Richardson Road
Chelmsford, MA 01863
Attn: New membership

Then forward the link to this site on to other CHS 1996 graduates you know. All I ask of you is that whenever you forward the email, you also forward it to my email address, so I can start an email database of our classmates for future use in reunion planning. We should embrace the technology available to us to come together as a class.

Visit the CHSAA website. It’s a work in progress, but in comparison to classmates.com, it’s already much easier to use. As a member of CHSAA, you will be able to view a directory of all CHS graduates. For ¼ the cost of classmates.com each year it’s a much easier way to get contact info for the CHS alumni you want to reconnect with (that “classmates mail” thing on classmates.com is ridiculous and too much work, don’t you agree?). Eventually you will also be able to pay for your membership with your credit card over a secure connection to make sure it never runs out!

My goal is to have 50% membership of the class of 1996 by our 10-year reunion, which is now less than 3 years away. That’s an intense goal, considering right now we have less than 3% membership. It’s time the class of 1996 stepped up and recognized all the good work the CHS Alumni Association is doing, and band together as a class once again to keep it going and show our support for Chelmsford High School.

Thank you for reading this. If you want to help in this grassroots membership recruitment for the class of 1996, I’d love any help you can offer, so please email me. I look forward to our 10-year reunion being a huge success in 2006!

Take care,
Jessica McSheehy Del Llano