Around Town: It's reunion season

Reunions are popping up all over as everyone from school buddies to boating pals gather and reminisce.

The 89th Invitational Race for the Mills Trophy, an annual event that runs through the night on Lake Erie from the Toledo Harbor to Put-in-Bay, is more than just a race. It's a reunion of salty dogs from all over the country. This event, held June 6-10, is for all levels of racing from novices to the seasoned and serious.

The week included a 2011 Mills Race winners banquet at Toledo Yacht Club where 2011 winner Flat Stanley's skipper and crew were honored, including owners Trey Sheehan and Terry McSweeney of Put-in-Bay Yacht Club and Edgewater Yacht Club. The big Mills Party was Thursday at Toledo Yacht Club with the 56 Daze band and some 1,900 revelers.

Trey Sheehan and Terry mcSweeney, owners of the 2011 Mills Trophy Race winner. THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON Enlarge | Buy This Photo

The race was Friday, a hospitality tent was the center of entertainment Saturday at Put-in-Bay Yacht Club, and the awards presentation was Sunday with a champagne party where this year's 2012 Mills winner Irish Mist, skippered by Dave Spiers of Edison Boat Club in Detroit celebrated along with fellow sailors, all telling their tales of the seas.

There were many other trophies presented, including the Toledo Blade Trophy won by Hellion, skippered by Bob Coleman of Grosse Ile Yacht Club in Michigan. Kicks, skippered by Scott Boettner of Ford Yacht Club, won the President's Trophy. Camelot, skippered by Ron Konczalski of Grosse Ile Yacht Club, won the Governor's Trophy.

The 2012 honorary chairman, Joe Young, general chairman Ron Soka, and principal race officer Ed Theisen were assisted by Don Wood, Luiz Kahl, Jim Balough, Jack Bernard, Dick Anderson, Kaye Soka, Ron Gabel, Tim Radwanski, Barb and Jerry Chauvin, Geri Nagy and Tom Buckley, Barry Vincent, and his wife Becky Vincent, chairman of the race operations, and many others.

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PHOTO GALLERY: 89th Invitational Race for the Mills Trophy

Maumee Valley Country Day School's "All Aboard The Maumee Valley Express!," sponsored by Fifth Third Bank and Gilmore, Jasion, and Mahler, Ltd., raised more than $250,000, according to event chairmen Virginia Secor Shaw and Renee Buchanan.

While it was a fund-raiser, the recent night attended by about 350 supporters at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza of the Amtrak train station was also a reunion for many alums including Dave White, Jr., Peter Handwork, Tim Foster, Sandy Blackstone Carman, Nicole and JB LeBoutiller, Tommy Pipatjarasgit, Amir Khan, George and Stepper LeBoutillier, and Jay and Trina Robinson Secor.

The school also recently hosted its 78th Annual Smead Luncheon and Alumni Awards Presentation on campus. The school, founded in 1842 as a girls' finishing school in western New York, was moved to Toledo in 1884 where it became the Smead School for Girls. In the early 1930s it became co-educational and adopted its present name and location.

From left, Maumee Valley Country Day School alumni Dick Andrews, Class of 1959; Carty Finkbeiner (1957), and Jim Tuschman (1958). Enlarge

Nan Parfet Miller received the lifetime dedication award and was introduced by long-time friends, Mary and Fritz Wolfe. Audrey Bohnengel Lee, who was this year's keynote speaker, received the alumni achievement award and was introduced by Rick Newcomb, an alumni achievement award winner. Alumni service awards were presented to Carol Hampe Bentley and Lisa West Alpert. Former faculty members and alumni parents Chuck and Karen Lundholm were presented with the Alumni Parent Dedication Award.

Among the attendees were Clint and Pat Mauk, By and Laura West, Steve and Kay Foster, Joanie Foster, Priscilla Schwier, Carty Finkbeiner, Barbara Reed, Catherine Hoolahan, Sally Davies, Patrice Spitzer, and Ann Stranahan. That evening, 79 long-time friends gathered at the home of Sandy Carman Blackstone for a picnic in honor of classmate Audrey Bohnengel Lee.

The 50th reunion of the Mercy School of Nursing Class of 1962 gathered during the alumni banquet of Mercy College of Ohio at the Premier banquet facility.

There are 68 remaining classmates from the 1962 class. Significant events that occurred while they were student nurses shaped their lives forever, said classmate Betty Brogle. They assisted in treating mass casualties including the 1960 plane crash on take-off at Toledo Express Airport of the Cal-Poly football team from San Luis Obispo, Calif. and the 78 burn victims of the 1961 Anthony Wayne Trail gasoline truck explosion and fire.

To publicize your reunion, contact: ourtowns@theblade.com, attention Janet Romaker, Ourtowns Editor. We publish in Ourtowns on Mondays and Tuesdays (space permitting), reunion lists from the metro Toledo area.