Word is getting out
{This is a long post, because there was a lot of activity. But some great reading!}
The word of BolivarGrads.com is getting out. I had a good weekend of hearing from some of our classmates. Speaking of classmates, I have been using Classmates.com to my advantage. I typed up a short but sweet email about this site and I went to Classmates.com to send it out to all of Bolivar alumnus from 1985-1991. Of course, I had to pay to join. I did the 3 months for $15...what a rip. I don't mind companies trying to make money, but show me the value! For that subscription, I don't get to see any contact info and it doesn't really tell me anything about what everyone is doing. Just some stupid profile questions about what my favorite food is etc. Oh yeah, and it only let me send out 25 messages a day at the max.
Ok, now for the good stuff. Here is who responded to my messages. (On a sidenote, almost everyone who I talked to via email for phone said they really enjoyed seeing current pictures of people. So send some pictures to me and I will put them up)
Class of 1985
No one yet. These folks were Seniors when I was a Freshman, so they might not recognize my name when the message comes. We will get some of them soon though.
Class of 1986
Becky Crain - She didn't give me too much info about what she is up to. She thanked me for the tip on the website and that she had joined Classmates.com because it will be the 20 year reunion for the class of 1986 this summer. She wanted to try and contact as many people as she could. Becky was also the only one that replied back directly to the Classmates.com site, rather than sending an email to my email address. So I still don't have Becky's email address to give to other classmates that might be looking for her. Email me again Becky at JR@Bolivargrads.com!
And keep checking in here, because Classmates.com is not searching for your former classmates, but I am!
Class of 1987
Kristina Taylor (Hager) - Kristina emailed me from Kings Mountain, NC! She has been married for 8 years now and has a 3 year old daughter named Madison. Her husband is from the NC area, but they have lived in El Paso TX, California, and Greenville, SC. She is currently an Administrative Assistant for the Saturn of Spartanburg. She told me that she worked with Jimmy Jones at Sears in KC and that Todd Jones was living in GA. Thanks for those leads Kristina, I will track them down. Here is a picture of Kristina last year with Madison! (Thanks for sending the picture).
Class of 1988
Kim Salam (Warren) - Kim emailed me from Fayetville, AR. She has lived there the past 4 years with her husband Bill and has two daughters in Paige (2) and Sydney (9 weeks). Kim is a CPA and her husband is a helicopter pilot for AirVac Lifeteam. Kim said it was ironic that my email came because she was just wondering how some of her old friends from Bolivar were doing. Kim said that her current thoughts however are on 9 week old Sydney. She was born with Down Syndrome and has been diagnosed with a hole in her heart. They are waiting to hear if she is going to require open heart surgery. Kim has become involved in the local support group for Down Syndrome and they have asked her to be the Treasurer with her experience. Lets all send our wishes to Kim and her family. I will be talking to you soon Kim.
Bobby Miller (Now going by Robert) - Robert emailed me from TN. Although he did not graduate from Bolivar, he was a long time member of our class before he moved away. He didn't indicate too much in his email other than he was excited to keep reading what people are doing and for me to sign him up for the weekly email that I send out. He signed his email with:
Robert Miller
Development Director
Domestic Violence Program
To learn more about it, you can go to www.dvpshelter.org
Brenda Eggert (Young) - Brenda emailed me from Beavorton, OR. She works at the Nike HQ there. She also does not dig Classmates.com and was happy to hear about what I was doing. She has been married for 17 years and has 3 kids in Kyle 15, Jordan 11, and Mariah 6. She is a Sr. Administrative Assistant at Nike and said she keeps in contact with Jenny Koon on occasion. Send her this way Brenda! Oh, and what kind of discounts do you get? :) Looking forward to hearing more from you.
Jon Esterline - Jon emailed me from Jefferson City, MO. He is a Service Manager at the Tire Centers LLC there. He has been married for 10 years now from a girl he met while at SMS and they have a 7 year old daughter. He said that he has also been following Liberator Football as well. Talk to you soon Jon.
Erica Moore (Noyes) - I think by now we all know that Erica married Tim Noyes (Class of 1987). Erica emailed me from Corinth, MS. They own and operate the Noyes Family Care Center. They are both practicing physicians and have 3 kids in Abby 11, Maty 8, and Grant 4. She said she would send me some pictures soon! Here is some news for anyone still living in Bolivar... Erica and Tim will be in Bolivar on the weekend of Oct. 28th. This is SBU's homecoming weekend and her father Eric is going to be getting an award from the alumni. If you want Erica's contact info, send me an email and maybe you can meet up with her if she has time. By the way, Cameron Hodges told me that his daughter was going to be in the SBU homecoming parade. Looks like he will be around Bolivar this weekend too! I wish I was.
Patrick Richey - Patrick emailed me from Merriam, KS. I last saw Patrick at the 10 year reunion for Class of 88. He was in the Navy living in Seattle at the time. He then got a job working at the Railroad in KC but had to leave due to health issues. He now works with his wife at a large commercial realty firm in Kansas City. He was showing me a cool building that his wife is handling the takeover they just bought in Houston. Here is the building... www.3525sage.com . That looks pretty cool, but not as cool as your hair. I always think of you with black hair, so this took me by suprise. Here is a pic that Patrick attached. Stay in touch!
Tina Young (Early) - Tina emailed me from Stafford, MO. She is a Registered Nurse and lives with her husband of 17 years, David, and they have 5 children that range between 7-12. I bet she is busy. Tina is currently working for a home health agency as a Quality Advisor. She also gave me the email address for her sister Bridgett Young (class of 87) who is living in AR. I will definitely send her an email. Thanks Tina, and send some pictures of the kids!
Terrah Hale (Kelso) - I actually contacted Terrah by using some of my Google sleuthing tricks. I Googled her name and came up with her former employer. After a call to them I tracked her down to her home in Jefferson City, MO where she is a freelance Graphic Artist that has a few clients. Funny thing, her former employer is her biggest customer. Terrah is married to Craig Kelso who did not go to Bolivar High School, but he did go to SBU and got his degree. I actually roomed for a time in college with Craig. Terrah still keeps in touch with Jimella Mitchell and she gave me her phone number. I will have to get in touch with her as well. By the way, I thought I would throw out an old school picture of Terrah!
Greg Redford - Greg didn't say too much since he was off to a court proceeding. He is a New York City Police Officer (NYPD). I hope to hear from him soon, and send me a pic of you in uniform!
Chris Redford - Chris called me from Shreveport, LA. I had previewed him in an earlier post called "Google is your friend". Check it out. There you will see he is a Crime Reporter for a TV station. We talked for a while on Hurricane Katrina. He was embedded with the Shreveport Fire Department who went down to help with the disaster relief. Chris described some things he saw that were just tragic. He said it greatly affected him and that what we saw on the news did not show the tragedy to its fullest. All is well with Chris and he was asking for contact info of people that I have not tracked down yet. I will though and I will get it to you Chris.
Class of 1989
I didn't talk to anyone new this weekend. I had mentioned Cameron Hodges and Mark Penticuff earlier. Looking for some more contacts!
Class of 1990
Brandi Westmoreland (Wimsatt) - Brandi emailed me from Archie, MO which is just south of Kansas City. She has been a Loan Officer at Total Mortgage in Harrisonville for 9 years. She has two children a son 8, and a daughter 5. She said it was really interesting to read what everyone else is doing on the site and she will keep checking in for updates. I hope to have updates at least 3 times a week Brandi, so bookmark the site and come back.
Class of 1991
Michelle Kirby (Darby) - Michelle emailed me from Bolivar, MO. She is married with an 11 year old stepson and a 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son of her own. She is the junior/senior counselor at Bolivar High School. I got to know Michelle a lot better after High School since we always ran into each other in Springfield going to college. She liked the idea of BolivarGrads.com so she is going to pass it on to Kami Stanley, Jennifer Appleby, Sarah Hofstetter and Cyrie Coover who she keeps in regular contact with. Thanks Michelle and email me some pics also when you have a chance!
Shelly McMasters (Wyatt) - She emailed me from Battlefield, MO where she works as a 4Sight Project Manager for Jack Henry & Associates. Shelly said she was also not a big fan of Classmates.com and won't be renewing her membership, however she liked this site and said she wanted to navigate it further. One big plus Shelly...it's free! I assume Shelly is married since she has a new last name, but she did not expand on that. Perhaps in the next email.
So a ton of people contacted me, and I hope a lot more do over the next few weeks. Just make sure to visit and register on the Bolivar Messageboards that I set up. You can find it over on the links section. Every Friday I send out a weekly email to everyone on the BolivarGrads.com list, so I will put the instructions of how to do that in the next one.
By the way, everyone has asked how I am doing and what I do. I am living in Naperville, IL which is a great suburb about 25 miles outside of Chicago. I am married and just celebrated our 7th anniversary yesterday. We have to little girls in Payton 2, and Macy 8 months ( I will post some pics of them soon). I am a Sales Executive for a Consulting company called TUSC. It is a well known Oracle consulting company and you can see our site at www.tusc.com . I usually make it down to Springfield every August to meet up with some SMS college buddies and do a Fantasy Football draft. Next year, I might come a few days earlier just to see some of the folks that I have re-established a connection with.
Talk to you guys soon and let everyone know of www.bolivargrads.com!
JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
email me at JR@bolivargrads.com
The word of BolivarGrads.com is getting out. I had a good weekend of hearing from some of our classmates. Speaking of classmates, I have been using Classmates.com to my advantage. I typed up a short but sweet email about this site and I went to Classmates.com to send it out to all of Bolivar alumnus from 1985-1991. Of course, I had to pay to join. I did the 3 months for $15...what a rip. I don't mind companies trying to make money, but show me the value! For that subscription, I don't get to see any contact info and it doesn't really tell me anything about what everyone is doing. Just some stupid profile questions about what my favorite food is etc. Oh yeah, and it only let me send out 25 messages a day at the max.
Ok, now for the good stuff. Here is who responded to my messages. (On a sidenote, almost everyone who I talked to via email for phone said they really enjoyed seeing current pictures of people. So send some pictures to me and I will put them up)
Class of 1985
No one yet. These folks were Seniors when I was a Freshman, so they might not recognize my name when the message comes. We will get some of them soon though.
Class of 1986
Becky Crain - She didn't give me too much info about what she is up to. She thanked me for the tip on the website and that she had joined Classmates.com because it will be the 20 year reunion for the class of 1986 this summer. She wanted to try and contact as many people as she could. Becky was also the only one that replied back directly to the Classmates.com site, rather than sending an email to my email address. So I still don't have Becky's email address to give to other classmates that might be looking for her. Email me again Becky at JR@Bolivargrads.com!
And keep checking in here, because Classmates.com is not searching for your former classmates, but I am!
Class of 1987
Kristina Taylor (Hager) - Kristina emailed me from Kings Mountain, NC! She has been married for 8 years now and has a 3 year old daughter named Madison. Her husband is from the NC area, but they have lived in El Paso TX, California, and Greenville, SC. She is currently an Administrative Assistant for the Saturn of Spartanburg. She told me that she worked with Jimmy Jones at Sears in KC and that Todd Jones was living in GA. Thanks for those leads Kristina, I will track them down. Here is a picture of Kristina last year with Madison! (Thanks for sending the picture).
Class of 1988
Kim Salam (Warren) - Kim emailed me from Fayetville, AR. She has lived there the past 4 years with her husband Bill and has two daughters in Paige (2) and Sydney (9 weeks). Kim is a CPA and her husband is a helicopter pilot for AirVac Lifeteam. Kim said it was ironic that my email came because she was just wondering how some of her old friends from Bolivar were doing. Kim said that her current thoughts however are on 9 week old Sydney. She was born with Down Syndrome and has been diagnosed with a hole in her heart. They are waiting to hear if she is going to require open heart surgery. Kim has become involved in the local support group for Down Syndrome and they have asked her to be the Treasurer with her experience. Lets all send our wishes to Kim and her family. I will be talking to you soon Kim.
Bobby Miller (Now going by Robert) - Robert emailed me from TN. Although he did not graduate from Bolivar, he was a long time member of our class before he moved away. He didn't indicate too much in his email other than he was excited to keep reading what people are doing and for me to sign him up for the weekly email that I send out. He signed his email with:
Robert Miller
Development Director
Domestic Violence Program
To learn more about it, you can go to www.dvpshelter.org
Brenda Eggert (Young) - Brenda emailed me from Beavorton, OR. She works at the Nike HQ there. She also does not dig Classmates.com and was happy to hear about what I was doing. She has been married for 17 years and has 3 kids in Kyle 15, Jordan 11, and Mariah 6. She is a Sr. Administrative Assistant at Nike and said she keeps in contact with Jenny Koon on occasion. Send her this way Brenda! Oh, and what kind of discounts do you get? :) Looking forward to hearing more from you.
Jon Esterline - Jon emailed me from Jefferson City, MO. He is a Service Manager at the Tire Centers LLC there. He has been married for 10 years now from a girl he met while at SMS and they have a 7 year old daughter. He said that he has also been following Liberator Football as well. Talk to you soon Jon.
Erica Moore (Noyes) - I think by now we all know that Erica married Tim Noyes (Class of 1987). Erica emailed me from Corinth, MS. They own and operate the Noyes Family Care Center. They are both practicing physicians and have 3 kids in Abby 11, Maty 8, and Grant 4. She said she would send me some pictures soon! Here is some news for anyone still living in Bolivar... Erica and Tim will be in Bolivar on the weekend of Oct. 28th. This is SBU's homecoming weekend and her father Eric is going to be getting an award from the alumni. If you want Erica's contact info, send me an email and maybe you can meet up with her if she has time. By the way, Cameron Hodges told me that his daughter was going to be in the SBU homecoming parade. Looks like he will be around Bolivar this weekend too! I wish I was.
Patrick Richey - Patrick emailed me from Merriam, KS. I last saw Patrick at the 10 year reunion for Class of 88. He was in the Navy living in Seattle at the time. He then got a job working at the Railroad in KC but had to leave due to health issues. He now works with his wife at a large commercial realty firm in Kansas City. He was showing me a cool building that his wife is handling the takeover they just bought in Houston. Here is the building... www.3525sage.com . That looks pretty cool, but not as cool as your hair. I always think of you with black hair, so this took me by suprise. Here is a pic that Patrick attached. Stay in touch!
Tina Young (Early) - Tina emailed me from Stafford, MO. She is a Registered Nurse and lives with her husband of 17 years, David, and they have 5 children that range between 7-12. I bet she is busy. Tina is currently working for a home health agency as a Quality Advisor. She also gave me the email address for her sister Bridgett Young (class of 87) who is living in AR. I will definitely send her an email. Thanks Tina, and send some pictures of the kids!
Terrah Hale (Kelso) - I actually contacted Terrah by using some of my Google sleuthing tricks. I Googled her name and came up with her former employer. After a call to them I tracked her down to her home in Jefferson City, MO where she is a freelance Graphic Artist that has a few clients. Funny thing, her former employer is her biggest customer. Terrah is married to Craig Kelso who did not go to Bolivar High School, but he did go to SBU and got his degree. I actually roomed for a time in college with Craig. Terrah still keeps in touch with Jimella Mitchell and she gave me her phone number. I will have to get in touch with her as well. By the way, I thought I would throw out an old school picture of Terrah!
Greg Redford - Greg didn't say too much since he was off to a court proceeding. He is a New York City Police Officer (NYPD). I hope to hear from him soon, and send me a pic of you in uniform!
Chris Redford - Chris called me from Shreveport, LA. I had previewed him in an earlier post called "Google is your friend". Check it out. There you will see he is a Crime Reporter for a TV station. We talked for a while on Hurricane Katrina. He was embedded with the Shreveport Fire Department who went down to help with the disaster relief. Chris described some things he saw that were just tragic. He said it greatly affected him and that what we saw on the news did not show the tragedy to its fullest. All is well with Chris and he was asking for contact info of people that I have not tracked down yet. I will though and I will get it to you Chris.
Class of 1989
I didn't talk to anyone new this weekend. I had mentioned Cameron Hodges and Mark Penticuff earlier. Looking for some more contacts!
Class of 1990
Brandi Westmoreland (Wimsatt) - Brandi emailed me from Archie, MO which is just south of Kansas City. She has been a Loan Officer at Total Mortgage in Harrisonville for 9 years. She has two children a son 8, and a daughter 5. She said it was really interesting to read what everyone else is doing on the site and she will keep checking in for updates. I hope to have updates at least 3 times a week Brandi, so bookmark the site and come back.
Class of 1991
Michelle Kirby (Darby) - Michelle emailed me from Bolivar, MO. She is married with an 11 year old stepson and a 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son of her own. She is the junior/senior counselor at Bolivar High School. I got to know Michelle a lot better after High School since we always ran into each other in Springfield going to college. She liked the idea of BolivarGrads.com so she is going to pass it on to Kami Stanley, Jennifer Appleby, Sarah Hofstetter and Cyrie Coover who she keeps in regular contact with. Thanks Michelle and email me some pics also when you have a chance!
Shelly McMasters (Wyatt) - She emailed me from Battlefield, MO where she works as a 4Sight Project Manager for Jack Henry & Associates. Shelly said she was also not a big fan of Classmates.com and won't be renewing her membership, however she liked this site and said she wanted to navigate it further. One big plus Shelly...it's free! I assume Shelly is married since she has a new last name, but she did not expand on that. Perhaps in the next email.
So a ton of people contacted me, and I hope a lot more do over the next few weeks. Just make sure to visit and register on the Bolivar Messageboards that I set up. You can find it over on the links section. Every Friday I send out a weekly email to everyone on the BolivarGrads.com list, so I will put the instructions of how to do that in the next one.
By the way, everyone has asked how I am doing and what I do. I am living in Naperville, IL which is a great suburb about 25 miles outside of Chicago. I am married and just celebrated our 7th anniversary yesterday. We have to little girls in Payton 2, and Macy 8 months ( I will post some pics of them soon). I am a Sales Executive for a Consulting company called TUSC. It is a well known Oracle consulting company and you can see our site at www.tusc.com . I usually make it down to Springfield every August to meet up with some SMS college buddies and do a Fantasy Football draft. Next year, I might come a few days earlier just to see some of the folks that I have re-established a connection with.
Talk to you guys soon and let everyone know of www.bolivargrads.com!
JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
email me at JR@bolivargrads.com
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