Bolivar Grads

Keeping in Touch

2008-05-23T09:09:00.003-05:00

It has been awhile since my last post!

But believe it or not, some people still read this blog.

I have been casually keeping in touch with quite a few Bolivar Grads through MySpace and Facebook. I happen to have both, while others just have one or the other. If you would like to keep in touch with other Bolivar Grads, go create an account at www.myspace.com or www.facebook.com . Once you create the account, fill out the profile and put in your High School (Bolivar) that you graduated from.

From that point, you can search on other Bolivar Grads that are members of that site and send them a Friend Request. Don't think you need to check this site every day or be a computer guru to do it. It is simple and takes as much time as you put into it.

I hope to get a Friend Request from you soon!

JR

Class of 1987 Reunion

2007-06-25T19:18:00.000-05:00

I just got an email today from Laurie Morehouse (Ball) of Class of 1987.

The reunion for the class of 1987 will be held on the weekend of July 21-22.

On Saturday the 21st, the class will meet at the Bolivar's Elk Lodge at 6:30pm and enjoy a catered dinner. After dinner the classmates will be able to hang out and talk and reminisce the good old days at BHS.

On Sunday classmates will meet at the first Pavillion at the park from 1:00pm - 3:00pm and enjoy Sheri's Saved Ice!

Anyone interested in attending can contact Laurie Ball at 417-777-5151 or can email me for Laurie's email address.

Have fun Class of 1987 and make sure to send me some pictures that I can post!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com

Has It Really Been 20 Years?

2007-06-16T15:40:00.000-05:00

20 years ago today, the Class of 1988 was getting ready to begin their Senior Year at Bolivar High School.

To honor this occasion, the Class of 88 will be getting together for a reunion this September in Bolivar.

From Mary Ann Callaway I have learned this:

The Class of 88 will have its reunion this September to coincide with it's homecoming of our Senior year. This was also in September of 1987.

The dates for the Reunion will be September 14th and 15th.

Friday the 14th will include the Homecoming Parade at 3pm and the Homecoming Football game at 7:00pm. The game will be held at SBU's Football Field and the Class of 1988 will be recognized at half time.

Saturday the 15th will be family day with Golf available to those who would like to Golf. Dinner will be held for the Class of 1988 at a yet to be determined location.

This reunion will be depending on word-of-mouth to get the word around to all alumns of 1988.

If you would like more information, feel free to send me an email and I will get you to Mary Ann who is coordinating this. If you are not on her email distribution list, email me with your contact info and I will get it to her as well!

I will post more details as they come in.

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com

Farewell to a Friend

2006-11-16T10:42:00.000-06:00

Another person I grew up with and hung around has passed.

Becky Martin
1971-2006

Obituaries
Rebecca 'Becky' Joyce Martin (January 5, 1971 - November 8, 2006) Guest Book Sign Guest Book Send Private Condolences

Rebecca Joyce Martin, of O'Fallon, MO passed away at her home on Wednesday, November 8, 2006 at the age of 35 years, 10 Months and 3 days. Becky was born to Danny Joe and Frances Jean (nee-Swann) Martin on January 5, 1971 in Springfield, MO. She was the General Manager for Drury Hotel in St. Peters, MO. Survivors include her life partner, Shael Snow of O'Fallon, MO, her mother, Fran Martin of Warrenton, MO, one sister, Kelly Chmiel and husband Ray, of Warrenton, MO, one brother, Chuck Martin and wife Kyle of Warrenton, MO, four nephews, Logan Chmiel, Brendan W. Martin, Braydan Chmiel and Nolan Chmiel, one niece, Rebecca Chmiel, one grandmother, Trudy Swann of Warrenton, MO, one aunt, Joy Rogers of O'Fallon, MO, cousins and other relatives and many friends. She was preceded in death by her father, Danny J. Martin, her grandparents, Enid and Joe Martin and Elmer Swann. Funeral services were held on Monday, November 13, 2006 at 10:00 A.M., at the Martin Funeral Chapel in Warrenton, MO. with the Reverend Christiane Batjer officiating. Graveside Memorial services will be held at 11:00 A.M. Thursday, November 16, at Greenwood Cemetery, Bolivar, MO Memorials may be made to the Danny Martin Academic Excellence Scholarship Fund in C/O the Martin Funeral Home, 510 E. Main St., Warrenton, MO 63383. Friends may sign the guest book or send private condolences at www.butlerfuneralhome.com

The New Year Is Here

2006-01-16T19:37:00.000-06:00

Hello all. I hope you had a good Holiday Season. I have taken a few weeks off from the blog, but I am back and ready to get going on some more updates. I am also hoping to preview the new website here in the next week or two. At that time I will be looking for volunteers who can help me out. Either answering emails or posting updates. I hope to have a bunch of people who would like to post. So if you are interested, let me know.

I have had several people contact me over the last 3 weeks with updates, and I know some of you have been itching for a new post.

Class of 1986

Angie Johnson - Angie had gotten in touch with me a couple of months ago, but she didn't give me an update on her until the last couple of days. She is still in Bolivar and works as a Registered Nurse/Case Manager at Citizens Memorial. She has been divorced for 4 years now after a 15 year marriage, but she is engaged to a wonderful guy now named Mark Nord, and they are planning a wedding for the spring. Angie has two boys in Jordon 16 and Austin 8. She also sees others from her graduating class including Catulpa Meadors (McDowell) who cuts her hair.

Class of 1988

Mary Ann Callaway - Mary Ann said that so many of our classmates had been telling her to check out the website and she finally made it over the New Year weekend. Mary Ann got her Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and Math from Central Methodist College in 1993. She now lives in Bolivar with her children Jacob 14, Josh 7 and Charlotte 5. Mary Ann has overcome a lot in the past few years. In 2000, while pregnant with Charlotte, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor (an acoustic neuroma). Six weeks after she had Charlotte, Mary Ann underwent surgery to remove the tumor. The doctors were able to remove all of it, but they had to sever her facial nerve which ended up leaving the left side of her face paralyzed. She had to learn to walk again and after 9 months of intense therapy she was able to swallow again. Mary Ann said her life is wonderful now and she is looking to hear from me and others. I can't wait to call her.

David Hockanson - David gave me a call during my darkest time of the past year. I was sick! So I was not able to chat with him long, but I can't wait to call him again and catch up. In 1997 David finally received his Doctorate Degree in Electrical Engineering and he went to work for Sun Microsystems building computers. He lives in the Santa Cruz mountains in a house on several acres of land with this daughter from a previous marriage and a number of pets. David said that the Redwoods soar all around them where he lives but he is not far from beautiful San Francisco if he ever wants to drive to a city. You can read more about David and see pictures of him on his personal blog. Take a loog at http://www.redwoodfolk.com/

Mark Davis - I got an email from Mark after he saw Chris and Greg Redford at the Battlefield Mall in Springfield over the Christmas Holiday. He is living in Springfield now and said that he is going through some exciting changes in his career which he will keep me posted. Mark, who now goes by Storm, said that he is extremely proud of his 10 month old nephew William. Attached is a picture of Storm and William.

Class of 1989

Tammy Wakefield (Herbert) - Tammy heard about BolivarGrads.com from Angie Mann (Grey). Tammy recently moved back to Bolivar from Austin, TX. She was happy to say that she and Danny Herbert have reunited after 10 years of divorce and they are doing great with their three children in Anthony 16, C.J. 15 and Lacey 13. Tammy said that she has not heard back from many people since she has been back and is hoping that this site will be a good way to get back in touch. Make sure to register for the Messageboards Tammy!

Bryant Foster - Bryant learned about the website from John Casebeer. After he poked around on BolivarGrads.com and thought it was pretty cool, especially the Messageboard Forums where he got to see plenty of names posting that he knew. He currently lives in Springfield, MO where he is living a bachelors life! For 8 years he was in sales where he had to travel frequently. He said he travelled so much, that he now dreads travelling anywhere. Even the drive from Springfield to Bolivar seems tortuous (You wouldn't make it in Chicago my man!). Bryant is currently the manager of a northside Pet Warehouse and said if you have a pet question, he probably has the answer. Below is a picture of Bryant at Halloween at Brian Lightfoot's house in KC. We look forward to seeing your posts on the Messageboard Bryant.

Class of 1990

Stacey Allen (Berry) - Stacey said that she had been terrible at keeping in touch with High School friends and she hopes this can help jumpstart her into re-establishing some relationships. She has been living in Seattle, WA since 2002 with her husband Bob and two children; Will 5 and Ally 2. They moved to Seattle so that Stacey could finish her residency in pathology at the University of Washington. In June she will complete a fellowship in Pediatric Pathology and she has accepted a position that will move them to the Phoenix, AZ area. Stacey said she still keeps in contact with John Casebeer, Holly Parker (Gardner), Sandy Ferguson (Nance), Barbara Gothard (Lee) and Sharon Long (Muir). I have posted a picture of Stacey and family below, or you can look at their family website at: http://homepage.mac.com/sbw_berry

Kevin Cribbs - Kevin emailed me from Bolivar where he lives with his wife of 4 years Amanda. Together they have a 2 year old son named Cooper. He is currently working for the Bank of Bolivar and its hometown bank owned by several stockholders. Kevin still stays in contact with Adam Quennoz, Tim Phillips and Frank Richards. Send them this way Kevin!

Class of 1991

Tracy Wakefield (Hillenburg) - Tracy heard about the website from her sister, Tammy. She spent some time reviewing the website and said it was neat to see so many old faces and names. She lives in Bolivar and has been married to her husband Tim for 14 years. Together they have a daughter Taylor 9 and son Ty 7. Tracy is a Registered Nurse and has worked for CMH for 11 years. Presently she is an OR Nurse. She is also finishing her Bachelors Degree in May. Tracy said that she would send us some pictures soon. We can't wait Tracy!

Other Items

Don't forget to put yourself on the BolivarGrads Map if you have not done it already! It is simple and takes 30 seconds. You can do it by clicking HERE. The last few people that have updated it have been Tony Stauch, Brett Potts, Gary Keeling and Carrie Roberts. Who will be next, and will we get more states covered?

Also you can be notified by email when there is a new post by putting in your email address into the box in the right hand column called Blogarithm.

And Don't forget to check out the Bolivar Messageboards. Many people are posting there already, but they want to see more of their High School friends posting there as well. You can look at the Messageboards by clicking HERE.

If you have not contacted me yet, please drop me an email!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com

Happy Holidays!

2005-12-21T19:00:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I am not sure how much I will hear from Bolivar Grads over the next couple of weeks since the Holidays are here, but I have heard from quite a few this week.

Class of 1985

Gary Keeling - Gary emailed me from Hazelwood, MO which is a suburb of St. Louis. Gary said he is not married and does not have any kids, but he has been quite successful after graduating from BHS. He received his B.A. in Psychology from UMSL and now owns his own Field Inspections Company doing field work for mortgage companies and insurance companies. Currently Gary is considering furthering his education by getting a Masters degree somewhere in the Psychology field. He also said he has a good list of email addresses from the Class of 1985 after they did had their 20 year reunion back in October. Hopefully some of them will drop me a line!

Class of 1987

John Porter - I actually called John Porter up from the phone number that Karen Myers (Ice) had tracked down for me. After High School, John got his law degree from Oklahoma City University. He recalled the day in 1995 when the Oklahoma City bombing happened and he was down the street. It was a terrible sight for the world as well as John who was seeing it firsthand. John is now the Prosecuting Attorney for Polk County. We talked a bit about the things he is seeing as Bolivar continues to grow. Methamphetamine (Meth) is a big problem in the Bolivar area. With it being so cheap to make as well as needing some open area to make it in (without tipping off neighbors), rural areas like Bolivar are hotspots for the distributors to make it in. On a lighter note, he has two beautiful girls in Abbey 10 and Alex 7. He still sees Bolivar Grads around town and said he would check out the site when he had time! Great to talk to you John.

Class of 1989

Tim Steely - Tim said he had been checking out the site for the past few weeks but finally contacted me after Bret Stottlemyre threatened him! He just moved back to the Kansas City area after spending some time in 6 years in Phoenix, AZ where he was a Real Estate Agent. He will pick that up now that he is back in KC. He and his partner adopted a boy from Eastern Europe 2 years ago named Baylor. Baylor is now 6 years old and is pictured below. Tim still keeps in with Bret and Janette Serls (English) who lives in Monett. Thanks for stopping by Tim and register for the Messageboards!

Class of 1990

Jason Blum - Jason learned about BolivarGrads.com recently from Carrie Kallenbach (Gordon). He is married to Melissa Palmer (Class of 1992) and they have two children. Jason has been training paramedics and EMT interns for almost then years now. He also works with CGI computer animation and graphics and was on the development team for the PC game "Counter-Strike" a few years back (Interesting. I want to talk to you about that). Jason said that he keeps in touch with Eric Raney and John Frost who attends his church when he is not in the mission field. Also Brent Hopkins (Class of 1990) is currently his church's youth pastor. Below is a picture of Jason and his one son, Chase.

Amy Sellers (Hubbert) - I got a hold of Amy through an email that Sharon Long (Muir) had given me. She has been married to Dan Hubbert (Class of 1988) for 15 years now and have a 2 year old son named Dylan Joseph. Dan works for Nick's Transport hauling gasoline, diesel and occasionaly jet fuel. Amy works as an optical assistant for Dr. Lane Nutt in Bolivar. Last March the Hubberts moved about 4 miles out of town where they own 3 acres with a nice creek running through it and a lot of space to raise Dylan. They stay in contact with Jody Presley, Eric DeRossett, Brandi Wimsatt, Lynn Ward, Kim Payne, Shannon Kuliju. She also sees various Bolivar Grads at work or around town. Tell them to send me an email Amy!

Class of 1991

Jenny Eggert (Gambriel) - Jenny emailed me from Bolivar where she lives with her husband Joe Gambriel (Class of 1988). Together they have 3 boys in Cody 11, Caleb 9, and Josh 5. She is the Office Coordinator for Rehab at Citizens Memorial Hospital while Joe is a maintenance supervisor at Citizens Memorial Healthcare Facility. Send us some pictures Jenny and have Joe look at his picture HERE.

Jeff Miller - Jeff emailed me from Bolivar where he lives with his wife Laura and two girls in Ashton 8 and Ali 5. Jeff and I used to play basketball together since he and his brother Mike Miller lived in the Prairie Heights subdivision with me. Now Jeff is an Administrator for CMH and his wife is a nurse at Bolivar Family Care Center. A couple of weeks ago, Jeff saw Shane Davolt at a Chiefs game. He also works with Lisa Wolfe (Stringfellow), Michelle Rhodes (Parsons) and Jenny Eggert (Gambriel). Jeff said he would send some pictures in the near future. We can't wait Jeff!

REQUESTS

I am going to to a post in the near future on Bolivar Grads that have served in the Military. If you are a Bolivar Grad and have served in the Military, send me an email with a picture of you in Uniform and tell me what branch you were in, where you served, and what rank you attained. I have already received a few pictures and stories that I will post and I would love to have some more.

MESSAGEBOARDS

The Messageboards are starting to pick up. Take a look at it HERE.

We want to have 100 people registered to continue with our online community. Take a look (and join) some of the conversations going on!

Mike Miller started a thread on funny things that teachers said in High School. You can read about it HERE.

Kim Salam (Warren) started a post about funny things that happened on the Senior Trip. You can read about it HERE.

Chris Eyl started a post about Batman Begins. Join the discussion HERE.

Ashley Carpenter (Wilson) started a post asking if anyone has confessions they need to make. Read about them HERE.

Gary Keeling started a thread that asks the question of why our town is called Bolivar. Add any information you may have HERE.

Bret Stottlemyre shares some DEEP thoughts in a thread. You can read about them HERE.

I started a thread to do some trash talking with Chiefs fans, since I am a life long Raiders fan. What do you have to say about that? Say it HERE.

Elaina Daniels (Kates) asks what fights do you remember the most in High School. I definitely want to hear your stories HERE !

Chris Eyl and I discuss the best "Hair Bands" of the 80's. Take the poll and then you can comment below HERE.

Holly Parker (Gardner) suggested that we have a forum to post Wedding Pictures. After all, we all look our best on that day. You can send me your pictures to post, or go ahead and post them yourself HERE.

Sharon Long (Muir) sent me some great photos from the Class of 1990 Reunion this summer. They are posted HERE.

There are many more posts to read, but you need to be registered to post! Make sure to email me to get the instruction and the PASSWORD to post. We want to hear from all of you! (We really do)

Until Next Time!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com

Helping Hands

2005-12-16T09:50:00.000-06:00

One thing that I have really appreciated over the past weeks is the help that I have been receiving from folks to help track down people.

I want to thank Kahlie Brown (Krtek) for sending me a list of people that are in the Bolivar Phone Book. She has already prompted several people to contact me but she spent the time to type out about 15 people name, address and phone numbers for me.

I want to thank Sharon Long (Muir) who sent me a list of a dozen contacts email addresses from the Class of 1990 Reunion. I will be contacting them this weekend in order to try and track down what they are doing.

I want to thank David Rash who is making phone calls to Bolivar Grads parents in order to track down where their kids are today. I think he has tracked down Rick Mayfield and will have him contact me soon.

I want to thank Karen Myers (Ice) who has spent time doing some Google Searches and tracking down leads for me to call. She also has forwarded my site to folks and had them contact me.

Thanks to all who have forwarded this site to their friends or siblings and had them contact me so all Bolivar Grads can read where their classmates are today!

Since my last post, these people have contacted me:

Class of 1986

Janell Ice (Helton) - Janell was clued in about our site from her sister-in-law, Karen Myers (Ice). Janell is living in Houston, TX with her husband Bill Helton who managed the Pizza Hut in Bolivar during the 80's. They have been married 18 years and have 3 teen age daughters. Janell is a substitute teacher in the Houston area and sent this great photo of their family. Thanks Janell!

Class of 1988

Carrie Roberts (Wood) - Carrie was forwarded the site 2 months ago when the site started and forgot about it. Just last week John (Chris) Smith (Another Helping Hand) forwarded her the site again and she contacted me. Carrie moved away at the end of her Junior year so she didn't "officially" graduate from Bolivar, but she still made many friends that she keeps in contact with. She is living in Fayetville, Arkansas husband Paul Wood. They have been married for 14 years and together they have a daughter named Kailee 13 and Kyndall 10. Paul also has a son named Trent 18. Paul is a Sales Manager for Tyson Foods and Carrie is a Sales Manager for a large candle company. They both travel frequently and she just got back from New York where she was able to visit Greg Redford. She also keeps in touch with John Smith and Mary Ann Callaway. Below is a great photo of the Wood family. Thanks Carrie!

Class of 1990

John Casebeer - John heard about the site from Holly Parker (Gardner). After graduating from BHS, John spent several years working on-air in radio, and a couple of years doing iron work (His last job was the Banc One Ballpark in Phoenix, AZ). He finished his degree in Political Science at SMS and is about to make Captain in the U.S. Army. John said he loves is job in the Military. He will be departing soon for the "sun-soaked desert climes of Iraq". He said when he gets back he should have his Sand Wedge mastered. In 1996 John married Ginger Worthington (An SBU '93 Grad) and they now have 3 children in Ben 7, Emily 5, and Abigail 4. He still keeps in regular contact with Bryant Foster, Chad Daniel, Mike Rice, Stacey Allen (Berry), Holly Parker (Gardner) and Stephen Beaman. Here is a picture of John and Gingers children making scary faces.

Class of 1991

Sandy Branstetter - Sandy emailed me from Springfield, MO where she lives. She works for Electronic Video Systems where she does Smart Board sales and training in the schools as well as systems integrations in churches. She travels quite a bit with her job and loves seeing different places. When she is in town she is usually hanging out with the singles of Second Baptist Church in Springfield. She says that there is quite a contigent of Bolivar Grads that attend Second Baptist Church. If you would like to learn more about Sandy, check out her personal website HERE.

Wow, 4 updates and all of them sent in Pictures! That is a great update! If you are a Bolivar Grad and have not contacted me yet, send me an email! We all really want to know where and what you are up to!

My email address is JR@bolivargrads.com . Also make sure to put yourself on the Bolivar Grads Map! I want to see how many states we have spread out to. So far there is no one listed in states like Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Iowa, Colorado, Washington, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kentucky, Mississipi and more. If you live in one of these states, put yourself on the Map HERE!

NEW MESSAGEBOARD FORUM

So Holly Parker (Gardner) gave me a great idea that I decided to use. She suggested being able to see Bolivar Grads Wedding pictures since afer all, we usually look our best on that day! There is a new forum on the Messageboard that I started to post them HERE. Send me your wedding photos or you can post them yourself if you are a member of the Boards. Let's see those Brides and Grooms!

Until next time!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com

Adding To The Network

2005-12-12T20:17:00.000-06:00

Well I had a good weekend as far as people contacting me since my Friday email went out. Let's hope we hear from several more people before the next post!

We are about half way to our goal of registering 100 people on the Messageboards. Make sure to register if you haven't. And make sure to post! It doesn't even have to be about High School matters, just keeping in touch.

Here is who contacted me over the past few days.

Class of 1986

Tracy Vaughn - Tracy got an email from me that I sent through Classmates.com. She is in Florida currently after travelling the world. She and I talked on Friday afternoon via Yahoo Instant Message. I will have to give you an update on what she has done later since I chatted with her on my laptop (which I left at work tonight) and the message history is on it. I want to make sure I tell you some of the very cool things she has done accurately. On the next post!

Class of 1987

Paul Penticuff - I actually talked to Paul on the phone a few weeks ago and relived some funny High School times with him. He has been travelling quite a bit and is just now able to sit down and write an email to me. Paul is one of 9 partners in a Law Firm in Kansas City of over 50 lawyers and 100 employees. In the last month he has travelled to Charlotte, Atlanta, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, Houston, Seattle and San Diego. He is doing some national litigation for a pharmaceutical client and he has had to travel to get expert witness depositions for the case. He will be leaving again for D.C. and Las Vegas soon. Paul said he occasionally runs into Bolivar Grads while visiting his parents in Bolivar on holidays and just recently he went on a Golf Trip with David Crain (Class of 1987). If you want to see what Paul looks like these days you can see him HERE. He also sent this picture of his little girl, Katherine (Katie) Michelle. I have said before and I will say again that the best part of seeing recent pictures and the children of Bolivar Grads, is to be able to see them in their kids! Thanks Paul!

Marc Ferguson - Marc emailed me from Springfield, MO where he lives with his wife Rebekah. The have been married for 5 years and have a 5 month old daughter named Malorie. Mark graduated from CMSU in Warrensburg with a degree in Aviation Technology. He maintained pretty tight with Mike Miller after college and for awhile they Co-owned a small airplane together. He held a few jobs before going to work for Springfield Charter as a flight instructor and charter crewmember. For awhile, he was the guy that flew the SMSU's Men and Women's basketball teams around! Marc now works for Flight Options out of Cleveland, OH and flies Corporate Executives and Wealthy Individuals around where they want to go. He works 8 days on and then 7 days off. This allows him plenty of time in the summer to spend at Lake Pomme de Terre fishing and water skiing on his boat. Recently Marc has started his own company called "SOME BEECH" after his newes airplane - a Beechcraft Duchess. Other than Mike, he still keeps in touch with Stacy Sikes, Jim Duryee, and Dennis Inglis. Thanks for contacting me Marc. It sounds like you do a lot of interesting and cool things!

Class of 1988

Carol Cunningham (Cates) - Carol emailed me after hearing about the site from Emily Westervelt (Johnson). She is living in Morrisville, MO with her husband Johnny and four children: Maggie (Margaret) 11, John Michael 8, Olivia 6 and Jessica 20 months. For the past 6 years, Carol taught at the Polk County Christian School. She now currently substitute teaches in Morrisville and "volunteers for everything under the sun". Thanks for emailing Carol, now send us some pictures of that family of yours!

Class of 1989

Matt Jones - Matt emailed me from St. Charles, MO where he lives with his wife Anna. They have been married for 11 years and have 4 great kids in Zachary 8, Tucker 6, Mackenzie 4 and Tanner 1. Matt got his degree from Mizzou in 1993 and now works in Business Development for Sealed Air (which according to Anna, means he travels the country telling a lot of people they need to buy his foam). The funny thing is I had emailed Matt and had some exchanges with his wife Anna before I ever heard from him. They were introduced at a Lifeguard party by Chris Redford back in 1991. Matt doesn't get back to Bolivar much anymore since his parents moved to Lake Pomme de Terre and he is up in the St. Louis Area. Anna was kind enough to scan a picture of the Jones family and had Matt send it to me . What a great looking family. Thanks Matt and Anna!

Class of 1990

Holly Parker (Gardner) - Holly went to college in Grand Rapids, MI for 3 years majoring in Music until her mom came down with Cancer. Holly left to take care of her mother until she died in 1993 (I always thought Mrs. Parker was an extremely nice lady. I was sad to hear of her passing). Holly finished college at Limestone College in South Carolina with a History major. She met her husband, David Gardner, in South Carolina and they got married in 1995. Since then, she has lived in Louisville, Omaha, and now Greensboro, NC. They don't have any children yet, so she is able to spoil her choclate lab Jackson and they like to travel the world. (Recently went to Nicaragua and Mexico). Holly said she corresponds regularly with John Casebeer (Class of 1990) and she would love to get back into contact with Stacey Allen, Deanna Welborn, Ginger Hancock and Terrah Hale. I will send her Terrah's contact info, but I need help tracking down Ginger, Deanna and Stacey. Can anyone help us find them?

I am still looking for people to send in any of their High School pictures they may have taken. Right now they may be collecting dust in your closet or scrapbook, but let us have everyone enjoy them! Scan them and send them to me or send copies to me and I will scan them and post them for you. I just added some candids on the messagboard HERE. The first one was taken by Cary Huser who used to go around and take pictures of everything for the Newspaper and Yearbook. We need to find Cary because I bet he has a Treasure Chest of pictures from High School!

If you are a Bolivar Grad and have not contacted me yet, send me an email or call me! We ALL want to hear from you.

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
Email : JR@bolivargrads.com
Cell: 630-841-5130

60 Days

2005-12-09T15:27:00.000-06:00

It has almost been 2 months ago (October 8th) that I started this site and it has been amazing to see how many people have responded so far. Doesn't this beat Classmates.com?

Here is a list of the current Bolivar Grads Network (1985-1991). These people have contacted me and are getting my weekly emails on Friday. This does not include the spouses of these member that are also Bolivar Grads. For example, I have Jennifer Appleby (Follis) marked, but I have not figured in Jack Follis yet. I will go through the list and add the spouses soon.

Class of 1985 - Lisa Beals (Jenkins), Claudie Fernandez, Sarah Leininger (Jones), Walter Westervelt, Susan Leaverton (LaBay)

Class of 1986 - Greg Greven, Becky Crain, Dawn Neal (Cosby), Janet Cline (Ward), Betsy Fullerton (Eckols), Kerri Koon (Simon), Angie Johnson (Combs), David Rash, Lori Voris (Buckner), Mick Simmons, Lynette Bosak

Class of 1987 - Melissa Spiegel (Burks), Terry Pursley (Spence), Kristina Taylor (Hager), Kim Vest (Jarman), Shelly Abel (Chaney), Laurie Morehouse (Ball), Karen Myers (Ice), Tammy Brown (Jenkins), John Kallenbach, Jill Wilkinson, Denise Crain (Jenkins), Terri Hoffman (Barngrover), Jim Jones, Lisa Gray (Wolfe), Mike Miller,

Class of 1988 - JR Mariottini, Ronda Fink (Riden), Steve & Kim Hawk (Hale), Chris Smith, Brad Roweton, Mary Beth Jones (Vance), Terrie Flint (Reed), Brian Mitchell, Daniel Rash, Kim Brubeck (Wilson), Jennifer Koon (Spangler), Kim Salam (Warren), Bobby Miller, Brenda Eggert (Young), Jon Esterline, Erica Moore (Noyes), Patrick Richey, Tina Young (Early), Terrah Hale (Kelso), Greg Redford, Chris Redford, Christopher Eyl, Ray Crane, Jeremy MacLaughlin, Brian Leach, Eric DeRossett, Raquel Vest (Boyce), Leslie Jarman, Barbara Burrows (Davolt), Laurie Nash (Fisher), Daniel Hicks, Stephanie Farmer (Lawson), Lisa Scott (Martin), Brad Taylor

Class of 1989 - Michael Davolt, Ashley Carpenter (Wilson), Matt Jones, Mark Penticuff, Rob Parsons, Jill Jones (Jackson), Brett Stottlemyre, Carrie Kallenbach (Gordon), Kahlie Brown (Krtek), Staci Garretson (Wendland), Emily Westervelt (Johnson)

Class of 1990 - Brandi Westmoreland (Wimsatt), Grady Davolt, Marian Derryberry, Sharon Long (Muir), Dawn Keeling (Petersen), Matt Roberts, John Vaughan, Marian Derryberry, Kim Beckler (Payne), Scott Emmert, Alma Adams (Lindsay)

Class of 1991 - Michelle Kirby (Darby), Shelly McMasters (Wyatt), Shannon Lightfoot, Tricia Myers (Pyle), Renee Morehouse (Jones), Jennifer Appleby (Follis), Julie Wollard (Trout), Ty Stephens (Smith)

If you are not a member of the Bolivar Grads Network yet, send me an email at JR@bolivargrads.com . Let me know where you are. Married? Children? Job?

As for recent updates:

Class of 1985

Susan Leaverton (LaBay) - I got an email from Susan asking me to put her on the Bolivar Grads Network so she can receive the weekly email. She sent the email from Roseville, CA and you can find her on the Bolivar Grads Map HERE. She didn't give me anymore information but I asked her to update us on what she is doing these days. Look for an update in the future.

Class of 1989

Emily Westervelt (Johnson) - Emily emailed me from Wilmington, DE where she lives with her husband and three children: Sven, Rebecca and Margaret. She graduated from California State University and is now working as a part-time Sales Rep for Hewlett-Packard. Emily also works part-time for a Industrial/Commercial Real Estate Agency in town. She said she has spoken with Carrie Kallenbach (Gordon) and Carol Cunningham (Cates) on occasion and gets a Christmas card every year from Matt Jones (and wife Anna). Emily also said she would love to hear from Shane Davolt and Lory Pulley. Can anyone help me track them down? Here is a great picture of Emily and her family!

Picture Updates

I have started a section on the Messageboard for current pictures. I love to see pictures of Bolivar Grads with their kids because you can see such a resemblence of your High School freinds in a new generation!

You can see updates for Tammy Brown (Jenkins) and Renee Morehouse (Jones) HERE.

Also, some people have told me that they have not read the Bolivar Grads Article because they do not have access to it. I posted a copy of it HERE on the Messageboards. You can get a free subscription to the Bolivar Herald Free Press Online HERE. It allows you to read the current articles and news. There is also a paid subscription that you can get which lets you search their archives.

Until Next Time

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com

More Updates!

2005-12-06T20:50:00.000-06:00

It is just a few weeks before the NEW Bolivargrads.com will be rolled out to incorporate all Bolivar Graduates and that looks like it may include a new and different messageboard. After reviewing some other options I have found what appears to be a much better messageboard that is also FREE to build. The current one that we have in place I payed $20 for 4 months and it will come due in February. Not only is the new option free, but it has a lot of cool customizations that Janet Cline (Ward) has already created. What does that mean for current Messageboard members??? Well, unfortunately it means that you will have to register again at a later time. It will be a one time (and last time) process.

Last Friday I also chatted with some Bolivar Grads online or I called a lot of people to actually hear their voices for the first time in 15-18 years. It was nice talking with Janet Cline (Ward), Mick Simmons, Renee Jones (Morehouse), Stacy Garretson (Wendland), and Chris Redford. I have also chatted on Instant Message with Kim Salam, John (Chris) Smith, Chris Eyl and John Vaughan. I also tried contacting other people but either could not reach them or left a voice mail. I might be calling YOU next! The neat thing is, I would not have talked to most of these people if I did not start this little project. I hope everyone can stay in casual touch.

On another note - Mrs. Vincent (Parsons) is now my Editor. The teacher in her misses grading papers so she is now sending me emails with my spelling and grammatical errors so I can fix them. I told her that I don't proofread these posts, so I appreciate her help.

Class of 1986

Mick Simmons - I got Mick's work phone number at a Nissan Dealership in Kansas City, MO from Karen Myers (Ice) who ran into him there. I gave him a call last Friday and we talked for a bit. He is doing well there and has 3 boys. Mick and I talked about High School debate and reflected how amazing it was for a small little town like Bolivar was a debate powerhouse for several years under Mrs. Beryl Harris. People like Russ Jackson, David Crain, Will Westomoreland, Kelly Shay, Paul Penticuff, Mick and later myself all enjoyed success even against the larger Springfield Schools. It was cool to catch up with Mick and I forwarded him to Janet Cline (Ward) and Greg Greven for the 1986 reunion.

Lynette Bosak - I love how Lynette started her email : "Now I feel bad - I was contacted earlier and never took the time to respond. Walter Westervelt actually called from Germany last Friday [and told Lynette to contact me]". Thanks Walter! Now that is a cool way to get someone to contact me. After graduating from SMSU with a Degree in Accounting, Lynette remained in the Springfield area (Fair Grove). She is a CIA (Certified Internal Auditor) and a CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor) at Associated Electric. She doesn't have any children but loves to spoil her nieces and nephew. She is also a Lake Bum during the summers! Thanks for emailing me Lynette!

Class of 1987

Mike Miller - Mike emailed me from Edmond, OK where he lives with his wife Robin and 2 year old son Grayson. He works for the FAA as an Operations Inspector and Robin is a Pediatric Physical Therapist. Mike likes coming to the site and seeing what everyone is up to these days. He also reminded me that we were neighbors in Prairie Heights in Bolivar. He also travels up my way to Chicago occasionaly, so we will have to get together for lunch sometime! If you would like to see a picture of Mike, he posted one on the Bolivar Grads Map. You can see it by clicking HERE and if you have not added yourself yet...do it! At the time of this post we had 47 Grads on the Map. Can we get to 60?

Lisa Gray (Wolfe) - I mentioned Lisa in the last post, but she sent me an email with some updated information. She is living in Overland Park, KS with her husband Chris and 4 great kids in Darby 15, Lauren 8, Margaret 7, and Christopher 6. She stayed at home with the kids until this year when Christopher went to kindergarten. Now Lisa works at Shawnee MissionWest High School as a Nurses Aide. She gets to take her kids to school and pick them up, so the hours are great! She is also a Girl Scout leader for her 9 year old. I think Lisa needs to send us a picture of her and her kids! She also created her first post on the Messageboard, so everybody say hello to Lisa HERE.

Class of 1988

Brad Taylor - Brad is another one that started his email about how Jeremy MacLaughlin had told him to come to the site a month ago and he finally made it around to the site. Thats great, we will take you anytime! Brad is in Bolivar where he lives with his wife Suzanne Farmer (Taylor) (Class of 1989) and their 3 children Jacob 10, Bryson 9, and Kara 5. Make sure to send us some pictures Brad and we will see you on the Messageboards.

Class of 1990

Scott Emmert - I actually got an email from Annabelle Emmert, Scott's wife. She had heard about the sight from an email from Sharon Long (Muir). Annabelle said that Scott is computer illiterate, which I believe is not uncommon! Seriously I belive that there are a lot of Bolivar Grads that may or may not know about this site, but it will not be from an email that I hear from them because they don't mess with computers. Thanks for sending me the email on behalf of him Annabelle! Together they have 2 children from his first marriage in Daiwa 10 and Brandon 7 and Annabelle has 3 children in Ethan 7, Mollie 4 and Everett 2. So they have quite the "clan" as she put it. Scott works for Ozark Fire Protection as a Sprinklerfitter and travels all over the state doing installations, inspections and repairs. He also spends a lot of time on the Lake in Fishing Tournaments. Now that sounds exciting!

Alma Adams (Lindsay) - Alma emailed me from Bolivar after reading about the site in the Bolivar Herald Free Press article. She has been married to Matt Lindsay (Class of 1992) for almost 7 years and together they have a 2 year old daughter named Payten. Alma is an Assistant Vice President at Bank of Bolivar and she and Matt live in a house that they built just south of Bolivar. Alma said that she also works with Kevin Cribbs (Class of 1990). Recently she has seen Brian West (Class of 1986), Kelly Meyers (Class of 1987) and Rob Fraser (Class of 1990). Send them this way Alma!

Picture Updates

Here are some pictures that have been sent to me recently. I hope to receive more soon.

David Rash and Family

Carrie Kallenbach (Gordon) and Family

I might start doing a few posts that have no updates but just some whimsical things that I thought would be High School related and funny. When I was talking with John Vaughan the other day, I told him my idea about transcribing all of the entries that people wrote into my yearbooks and putting them into a spreadsheet. Then I would run some statistical analysis of how many times people said things like:

"I am really glad I got to know you this year"
"You are a really sweet guy"
and "Keep in Touch"

Just some stupid things I am thinking about doing. I am also up for any ideas someone may have. So let me know.

If you are a Bolivar Graduate and have not contacted me yet, email me at JR@bolivargrads.com . Or if you are Computer Illiterate, give me a call at 630-841-5129. By doing so, you will become a member of the Bolivar Grads Network and will receive my weekly email that I send out every Friday. Some people have told me they really like getting that email and seeing the summary of what has happened for the week.

I will be talking to some of you soon!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com

I have seen the future...

2005-12-02T08:22:00.000-06:00

...and it is good!

BolivarGrads.com will be undergoing a major change in January! As I have mentioned before, I have been looking at some options that would not only accomodate all BolivarGrads on the Messageboard, but also on this site as well. So, we could have updates on what Bolivar High School Graduates are up to from EVERY graduating class. Luckily I work for a Technology company with many great minds. I mentioned my dilemna to a few developers a few weeks back and they said they could build something to accomodate my needs.

So...yesterday I saw a prototype of what BolivarGrads can look like and I was thrilled! I will be purchasing a license for a Commercial Blogging Software Package that will allow us to do what we want and more. If I were to describe what I saw, the main page would be a full list of updates on individual Bolivar Grads. It would be much like what you see today when I update what people are doing. But each person would have their own update and it would be placed into a category by the Graduation Year. That way, if you want to come to the main page and not read about people you don't know from a different era, you can simply click on a Graduating year and see all the updates from that year alone! Now to do this, I still will ask for some help from Bolivar Grads who would like to Volunteer. Things like answering emails, creating an update for a Bolivar Grad, and sending information to someone who wants to join the messageboard. I also would like to know who might have some HTML expertise and may ask for some help from our Graphic Designers to help "snazzy" up the look. You will hear more from this as December moves along.

I already have my first two Volunteers to help with administration. First Elaina Daniels (Kates) (Class of 1994) who I have mentioned in a recent post has been active already on the Messageboards. She has volunteered to help with her era.

The second person that volunteered was really cool to hear from! It was Mrs. Jean Parsons (now Mrs. Vincent). Yep, most of us remember her as our American History Teacher -- Mrs. Parsons! She is remarried to another Bolivar Grad in David Vincent (Class of 1964) and is currently living in Greenbelt, Maryland where David works for the USDA Research Center. Mrs. Vincent (I just can't call you Jean!) has been doing some part-time substitute teaching but her real love has been her volunteer work at the National Archives working with old Military Records and giving tourists the tour! In April, 2006 David will be retiring and the Vincents will be heading back to Bolivar for good. I want to thank Mrs. Vincent for volunteering to answer some emails for me when the new site is ready.

Some new contacts in:

Class of 1985

Walter Westervelt - Walter emailed me just this morning after hearing about the site from his sister Emily Westervelt (Class of 1989) (I need to hear from her too!). Walter is living in Frankfurt, Germany where he is working for Siemens AG. Since graduating from SMSU he said he has lost touch with Bolivar Grads with the exception of John Samek. Walter said he would love to hear from Bolivar Grads Emily Pace and Jay Stevens and also asked about some of his favorite teachers like Mrs. Smashey, Mrs Whatley and Art Stevens. I will try and track them all down for you Walter and give you an update. Thanks for the email!

Class of 1987

Lisa Gray (Wolfe) - I got a brief email from Lisa. She thought the website was great and wanted to get access to the Messageboards. I will send her the instructions and try to learn more about what she is up to and give you an update.

Class of 1988

Stephanie Farmer (Lawson) - Stephanie was on the Bolivar Grads Most Wanted list from a previous post. I will now mark her as "Found". She lives in Bolivar still with her two beautiful daughters Ashley Ann 11 and Nicole Rae 8 and their Yorkie named "Biscuit". She attended SBU for a time but finished her B.S. in Human Resource Management at SMSU in 1993. Stephanie worked at HealthMEDX in Ozark for a few years but is currently working at McKesson in Springfield as a Project Support Analyst. She loves her job but said she is still trying to figure out what she wants to do when you "grows up" (I know exactly what you mean). Stephanie is facing some tough times right now as the health of both of her parents is breaking down. I know this is something we all will face at some point but it is never easy. Lets all keep Stephanie in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you for emailing Steph and lets see some pictures of you with your girls sometime.

Lisa Scott (Martin) - Lisa recently moved back to Bolivar from Tampa Bay, Florida where she was spoiled on the December weather there! She lives in Bolivar with her husband Billy and and kids Derek 14, Sierra 11, Billy 5 and Grayson 4. Lisa has been an over the road Truck Driver for the past 9 years until she was in an accident in August when another truck ran off the road and hit her. She has now slowed down and stays home full time with the kids. Lisa said that her daughter, Grayson, has Cerebral Palsy and that Sarah Leininger (Jones) has been working with her as a therapist and has been doing a WONDERFUL job. The last thing Lisa said is that she would love to hear from people now that she is back in Bolivar!

I also heard from some other Bolivar Grads that want to be a part of the Messageboards. They include:

Class of 1963 - Olle Jobe
Class of 1963 - Jerry Harris
Class of 1996 - Emily McGlone
Class of 1996 - Amanda Orrell

See you guys there!

Requests
I have a few requests for the Bolivar Grads Readers.

If you have not added yourself to the Bolivar Grads Map yet, please do. It takes 10 seconds to put in your name, and zipcode and a little message. A picture is optional. You can see the Map HERE.
If you know where any of the current Bolivar Grads most wanted are, please have them send me an email at JR@bolivargrads.com . Currently I am searching for Kasey Stewart, Lory Pulley, Christina Babb, Kristy Glover, Christy Hagerman, Amy Jump, Heather Moore, Marcia Miller, Malissa Davis, Julie Moffett, Brenda Stevens, and Emily Pace. I am going to add some new ones here since Bolivar Grads have asked for them specifically. Jay Stevens, Shannon Hodges, Allen Crabtree, Tricia Crippin, Becky Crain, and Betty Baker. If there is a certain Bolivar Grad you would like to get in touch with, let me know so we can focus on tracking them down.
Pictures! Many people have told me how much they enjoy seeing pictures! So send me a recent picture of you and your family. Also, it is really fun to go back and look at pictures of us from the High School days. If you have pictures from High School, scan them and email them or send me some copies in the mail and I will scan them. Don't let them collect dust! Chris Eyl just sent me some pictures that he scanned and I posted them in the Bolivar Messageboard Forum for Old High School Pictures. Look at these and tell me if you can recognize some of the other Bolivar Grads HERE.

People who have contacted me get an email every Friday as part of the Bolivar Grads Network Email. If you have not contacted me, make sure to send me an email with your contact info so I can include you.

Until Next Time!

JR Mariottini

Class of 1988

JR@bolivargrads.com

Bolivar Grads Messageboard Opened Up

2005-11-28T20:39:00.000-06:00

Well the article in the Bolivar Herald Free Press has definitely helped in getting people to notice Bolivar Grads. A few people have emailed me to let me know that they saw it in the paper.

One email I received was from David Hutcheson from Charlotte, NC. He is a graduate from Bolivar High School, Class of 1955! He found our website by reading the online addition of the newspaper article. He has been building a database of ALL Bolivar Graduates both living and deceased. He said has built his database up to Class of 1983 and then his information becomes incomplete. His sister, Jean Hutcheson (Raney) (Class of 1956) provided some updated information from the ALL School Reunion this summer. Sylvia Simmons (Thomas) (Class of 1954) who has retired in Bolivar is also helping to furnish data as a result of her volunteer position at the Polk County Genealogical Society. So if you graduated in the Class of 1984-2005 and can provide me a list of who was in your graduating class, I will forward that to Mr. Hutcheson.

Mr. Hutcheson had also hoped for some website that would allow Bolivar Grads to contact each other. So, I have decided to open up the Bolivar Grads Messageboard to ALL Bolivar Graduates, regardless of the year they graduated. If you are a Bolivar Graduate, email me at JR@bolivargrads.com and I will forward you instructions and a password to join the messageboards. As far as this Blog, I will continue to still only give updates on Graduates from 1985-1991 while I look for options to accomadate other classes. I may be asking for volunteers to help at a later time.

Here are a few updates this week:

Class of 1985

Sarah Leininger (Jones) - I was excited to hear from Sarah. I only knew for a year or so, but I had a lot of fun getting to know her at First Baptist Church Events. She was informed about the website from Eric DeRossett. Sarah lives in Bolivar and just celebrated her 15 year Anniversary to her husband, Tom Jones. Together they have 4 children in Madelynne (12), Abigail (10), Sam (7) and John (5). Besides being a full time Mom, Sarah works two days a week at CMH as a pediatric physical therapist. Sarah told me a funny story about how time flies! When her son Sam found out a couple of years ago that his teacher would be Amy Whatley (Roberts), Sarah told him that he would definitely like her because she is nice. Sam asked his Mom how she knew Mrs. Roberts and Sarah replied "Because I used to babysit her when I was in High School!". My how time flies when you are having fun.
Take a look at the picture of Sarah and Me in High School HERE. Her kids gave her a hard time about her hair. :) And take a look at the great looking Jones Family today!

Class of 1990

Kim Beckler (Payne) - Kim emailed me from Bolivar where she lives with her husband, Jeff Payne (Class of 1989). Together they have 3 children in Mary Beth 9, Mason 5 and Mia 2. Kim went to college and studied Biology and Chemistry and she now works at a Laboratory in town. Jeff and Kim now own a new business in town that specializes in Natural Meat and Gourmet Food. After 7 years at Coca-Cola Jeff decided that he had enough injuries and they started down the road to start their business. A couple of years ago the Paynes built their own house on 50 acres outside of town and they love it. They still actively spend time with Bolivar Grads like Teresa Mitchell (Holt), Jamie Laird (Shay), Tracy Wakefield (Hillenburg), Dawn Keeling (Petersen), Amy Sellers (Hubbert), Ashley Howlett (Miller Zolkowski), Lynn McFarland (Ward), Amber Ferguson, LeWane Mashburn, Tom Campbell, Jack and Jennifer Follis, Darryl Brannon, and Todd Lindsey. Send them this way Kim!

Class of 1991

Ty Stephens (Smith) - Ty emailed me from Bolivar after reading about the site in the newspaper. He is married to Misty (who he met while living in Dallas) who works for his dad at Stephens Studio in town. Ty is a High School Social Studies teacher for the Bolivar Alternative School (which serves 14 districts). It is actually in the old High School building that we went to and his classroom is in Mrs. Morehouses old typing classroom. Hmm. When did this happen? I will have to catch up with Ty. Ty is also a basketball coach for the 8th grade boys team. He said he is going to send me some pictures real soon. We look forward to them Ty!

Some updated pictures recently forwarded to me!

Tim and Erica Noyes Family

Kim Salam (Warren's) Girls

Sharon Long (Muir) and son Ethan

If you are a Bolivar Grad and have not contacted me yet, send me an email at JR@bolivargrads.com and let me know what you are up to these days. Also I will send you instructions of how to join our messageboards.

Until Next Time!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com

BolivarGrads.com Featured In Local Newspaper

2005-11-25T15:47:00.000-06:00

BolivarGrads.com was featured in the Friday edition of the Bolivar Herald-Free Press. Editor Charlotte Marsch did a great job with the story and hopefully that will lead us directly or indirectly to some more Bolivar Grads. You can read the story HERE.

I have already heard from 2 people who have read the story. First I heard from Elaina Daniels (Kates) (Class of 1994) who read the article and loved the idea of the site. She wanted to know about Grads from her era -- Grads of 1992 and down. Well right now I am not currently tracking them down, however, I may open up the site to ALL BolivarGrads. That would be a major undertaking though because I would have to go from a "Blog" style site to a truly information website that would allow updates to be classified into Graduating years. I would also need volunteers from every "era" to maintain a section, because I just don't have the time to do it. It can be done though, and I will look into it.

The other person I heard from was Libby Friend (Farrell) (Class of 1984). She also read the article and gave me some great information. She also gave me the email addresses for Phil Friend (Class of 1985) and Melissa Friend (Fenton) (Class of 1987). I will contact them and try and get updates.

I have not heard from anyone new from our target range of 1985-1991 since my last post, but I am sure the Holidays have a lot to do with it. I really hope to hear from the people I posted in Bolivar Grads Most Wanted earlier. Since it worked for Terri Hoffman (Barngrover), I will post a few more that I hope to hear from soon!

MISSING!......MISSING!

MISSING!.........MISSING!

MISSING!........MISSING!

The First Bolivar Chat Session!

The first Bolivar Chat Session happened on Tuesday night. We had 4 people turn out for it and at first I wondered if we would have much conversation since it was 4 people who didn't know each other too well. We had David Rash (Class of 1986), Tammy Brown (Jenkins) (Class of 1987), Kim Salam (Warren) (Class of 1988), and myself. We all logged in and ended up chatting for 40 minutes and it FLEW! We all admitted that we had a suprisingly great time as we caught up and talked about Bolivar. Next time we all agreed that we would like to at lease double the attendance, but we figured the Holiday week was a factor in the low turnout. I had emails from a few people who said they could not attend because they were travelling or getting ready to travel for Thanksgiving. Perhaps next time.

Hope to hear from more Grads soon!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com

We Gear Up For The First Bolivar Chat Session

2005-11-21T20:20:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow night, Tuesday November 21st will be our first Bolivar Chat Session on the Bolivar Messageboards from 8:00pm - 8:30pm CST. We can create rooms for up to 25 people to hang out, chat, and catch up. You will need to go to the messageboard and look up to the top left hand corner. There is a an option to "Join Live Chat" with a Chat Bubble Next to it. Click on that and it should put you into the Chat Room. I hope to see a good group there tomorrow! You must be a registered member of the messageboards and that means you need me to send you the instructions if you are not a member of the Bolivar Grads Network yet. If you have any thoughts about joining, send me an email and ask for he instructions and password.
JR@bolivargrads.com

A few people have contacted me over the past 3 days.

Class of 1986

Lori Voris (Buckner) - Lori heard about the website from Kahlie Brown (Krtek) (I think I need to put Kahlie in charge of marketing. I think that is 3 people referred by her). Lori still lives in Bolivar, about 13 miles north in the big town of Rondo with her husband of 13 years in Lloyd Buckner (Class of 1982). They own a farm in Rondo and live with their two children Mikayla 9 and Lance 7. Lori is teaching 1st Grade at the Bolivar Primary School and Lloyd is a farmer. Lori remembered sitting behind me in Mrs. Neuharts Biology Class and said she could always depend on me for a good laugh. Lori it was pretty easy really considering it was Mrs. Neuharts Biology Class. :) Thanks for emailing me and send some pictures of you and your family to us!

Class of 1987

Jim Jones - Jim emailed me from Overland Park, KS where he lives with his wife Angela. They have been married for 6 years and have a 2 year old son Luke and a daughter named Lilly on the way (Dec. 27th). Congratulationas! Looks like a welcome addition for Christmas and another tax break for 2006! Jim has been a Sales Rep for a paper company for the past 10 years and Angela stays home with Luke. He has also kept in close contact with Kyle Hatfield (Class of 1987) and was going to forward the site on to him. Jim also mentioned that he enjoyed seeing what everyone was up to these days and that is a common theme that I hear. Thanks for emailing Jim.

Terri Hoffman (Barngrover) - I love how Terri started her email. "I have to admit that I am one of the guilty ones that has been looking at your web site for a few weeks and have not taken the time, until now, to send you an email. I think I was motivated by the Most Wanted posting." Terri, I am positive that you are not alone. Hopefully a few more people will contact me. Terri emailed me from Springfield, MO where she lives with her Jon, her husband of 2 1/2 years. She said he is really a great guy. Together they have a 10 month old boy named Evan. Terri has worked at Jack Henry and Associates since 2000 and manages the Education Group for their Core Director, Banker II, and Banker E products. She does a bit of travelling with her job and this summer she will be coming to Chicago (West Chicago actually) for a customer rollout. That is only 20 minutes away from me so I hope to see her if time permits. Terri attached two pictures for me. The first picture is of her and her new family. The other picture she said was taken for this site. On Saturday night it was "Girls Night Out!" in Springfield and they all met at Terri's house afterwards. Do you recognize Jennifer Potts (Randolph), Terri, Laurie Morehouse (Ball), Malissa Davis (Julien), Sheri Hobbs (Hess), Christy Hagerman (Mitchell), Kim Vest (Jarman), and Missy Spiegel (Burks)? Thanks for taking the moment to finally email me Terri and a special thanks for the pictures!

Deceased Bolivar Grads

In a recent post I mentioned some Bolivar Grads that have passed on since we had graduated. A few of you sent me emails and informed me of some more, but then I got several emails saying "I didn't know X person passed away. How and When did this happen." I don't know those answers, so I am hoping all of you can help me fill in the missing pieces to let everyone who is concerned know what happened. I have started a new thread on the messageboard HERE and would appreciate if you can post any additional information you might have. I wish they could all be here today to share stories of High School with us on Bolivar Grads.

Tom Endrizzi
Class of 1988
Sept. 12, 1969 - November 3, 1987

Other Notes

There are a couple of polls up on the messageboards. If you have a moment click on your choices. You can find them HERE.
The Bolivar Grads Map is HERE. Add yourself by entering your name and zip code.
I am in search of High School candid photos to post on the messageboard. You probably have a box that is collecting dust of some photos from Sporting Events, Dances, Homecoming or Courtwarming, Church Events, Senior Trips, or simply just around school. Instead of them collecting the dust, let's put them to use! Scan those pictures and send them in, or if you want to make copies and mail them to me, email me and I will send you my address and I will put them up. I am putting them in the High School Pictures forum on the messageboard HERE!
Someone noticed that the Archive Logs were not working properly over on the right hand column. Thank you for pointing that out. I have fixed them now. If anyone notices something not working, please let me know.

Lots of fun things to do on the Messageboards when you are bored at home or at work (I do not officially condone taking away from work time. :P ) Our goal is to have 100 registered members for it to be a viable online Bolivar Grads Community. Right now we stand at 30 registered members.

I hope to see you tomorrow night in the Chat Room!

JR Mariottini

Class of 1988

JR@bolivargrads.com

A Post For Friday

2005-11-18T15:54:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to post a few more people that have contacted me in the past two days before I send out the Weekly Friday Email. For those of you who have not contacted me yet, every Friday I send out an email to the Bolivar Grads Network. This is everyone who has contacted me and that I have an email for. This way they get updates of who I have talked to and who is "In Network". So if they see someone they would like to contact in the Network, they can email me and I get them in contact.

Class of 1987

John Kallenbach - John emailed me from Bolivar where he lives with his Marie Kincaid (Class of 1991) and eight month old daughter, Elena. Together they own A-1 Tool, a manufacturing company of Paintless Dent Removal tools which are used to remove hail damage and door dings from automobiles. John also has the title of being "Of Counsel" with the law firm Douglas, Haun & Heidemann. He explained to me that being "Of Counsel" is a sophisticated way of saying "part-time". (I did not know that, I learn something every day). Previous to having their daughter, Maria taught 3-4 grades in Bolivar for 5 years, sold Real Estate and became a licensed cosmetologist. John said that he works with Jeff Howe (Class of 1987) at A-1 Tool and occasionally sees Lynn Coffey, Joe Follis, John Porter, and Tony Hitchcock. He told me some of the cool things that they do, but I am hoping to hear from them so I can update everyone. The last thing that John said was that he had seen the pop-up for Classmates.com but always wished there was a better forum to keep in touch with people. I say Amen to that! That is one of the biggest reasons I have spent the time to put this together, and it is free for everyone!

Denise Crain (Jenkins) - Denise was forwarded my site by Johnna Vaughan (Lynch), who I am waiting to hear from myself. I used to bump into Denise frequently in Springfield while I was going to SMS. She lives in Frisco, TX which is just north of Dallas with her husband Jeff and two daughters Ashley 4 and Abigail 3 weeks! She has been in Texas now for 8 years and loves it. She is a Tax Manager at Pepsico in Plano, TX. Denise doesn't make it back to Bolivar often but does keep in touch with Johnna and Kira Lower (Bradley). I used to sit in front of Kira and Lori Voris (Class of 1986) in Biology and would love to hear from both of them! Send some pictures Denise!

Jill Wilkinson - Now Jill I used to see all the time in Springfield. She has sent me two emails already, but I don't know anything about what she is doing! I hope to hear more from her so I can let you all know soon.

Class of 1989

Staci Garretson (Wendland) - Carrie Kallenbach (Gordon) told Staci about the website so she emailed me from Bolivar where she lives with her husband and two sons Tanner 8 and Dayne 6. She also has a step-son in Kyle 13. She was telling me how things have turned out differently than she expected after she graduated from High School. She chickened out of going to Oklahoma State (Don't worry Staci, I was all teed up to go to Baylor University and then I chickened out about 3 weeks before classes started) and went to SBU (So did I, initially) where she got her degree in Math. Staci runs the Office for her parents at Garreston Trash Services and she also teaches at the Dance Studio, Center Stage Dance Academy in Bolivar. She teaches 3 classes that are for young kids (4-7), juniors (8-12), and adult (13 - up). Staci said that she has talked to some of the girls in the area that were on the Bolivar Cheerleading squad or Drill team to sign up for the Adult class and they would call it "I Can Still Do That!" Both of her siblings Trudi Garreston (Class of 1985) and Greg Garretson (Class of 1988) live in Bolivar. She also still sees Paul Long, Brady & Missy (Morrow) Vestal, Mark Roberts, Kelli Moffett (Blankenship), Cammie Selvey (Wine), and Lynn McFarland (Ward). She also has a lot of Bolvar Grads children in her dance classes. Hopefully she can tell them to contact me. Staci told me she was going to send me some recent pictures soon, but in the meantime, I opened my vault of pictures and found only one picture of Staci. For some reason, I bet she looks much different!

While I was in the VAULT, I thought I would post a couple of more pictures of People I would like to hear from! Maybe I will start a section called BOLIVAR GRADS MOST WANTED and I will post pictures of them until I hear from them. Can anyone get these people to email me? JR@bolivargrads.com

MISSING! Found!

MISSING! MISSING!

MISSING! MISSING!

Found! MISSING!

Why do I only post girls pictures you ask? Because not too many guys ran down to my locker saying "I signed a picture for you JR!" I have like 200 pictures in "the Vault" and maybe 10 are of guys.

Don't forget, there is a Bolivar Grads Chat Session scheduled for next Tuesday from 8:00pm - 8:30pm CST on the Bolivar Messageboards. You need to be a registered member to participate. If you need instructions of how to join, email me and I will send them to you.

Until Next Time!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com

Exciting News for Bolivargrads.com

2005-11-16T20:03:00.000-06:00

Well it has been awhile since my last real post. I am feeling great today and ready to keep networking with Bolivar Grads.

First, I got some exciting news the other day. I received an email from Charlotte Marsch who is the Editor of the Bolivar Herald Free Press. Someone had brought this site to her attention and after browsing through it she decided it may make a good story for the paper. She sent several questions that I answered and we can only hope that it makes it to print. She also mentioned that she wanted to interview some of the people that have made contact with me and what they think of the site. The #1 reason that I would love to see a story run on Bolivar Grads is because I know there are many Graduates who have left the Bolivar area but their parents or family members still live in Bolivar. If they see the story, then hopefully they will have their kids contact me and get into the network. Time will tell. Thank you to whoever forwarded my site to her.

I heard from a few people since my last post, so let me share with you who they are.

Class of 1986

David Rash - David emailed me from Bolivar where he works for Tracker Marine as a CAD operator. David was in the Army for 8 1/2 years and served with his brother Daniel Rash in Operation Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and Desert Calm. He has 4 children in Jonathon, Matthew, Trevett, Ashley and 1 more on the way in June of 2006. David said that he works with Steve Skopec (class of 1987). Thanks for contacting me David!

Now David said some things that I find interesting. He said that he visits the site recently but never got in touch with me until now. I have a feeling that there are many more like you David. I just hope they drop me an email soon! The other thing he said was "You probably don't remember me" It is amazing how many people have said that to me, but the truth is I remember everybody! Especially someone like David who has a brother that was in my grade. I have 4 yearbooks sitting here at my desk, and if I can't recall a name, all I have to do is see a picture and I always say "Oh yea, I remember walking down the hall and seeing her/him". If you enjoy reading the site but have not contacted me because you think I won't remember who you are, trust me, I will remember.

Class of 1988

Barbara Burrows (Davolt) - Barbara emailed me from Bolivar where she lives with her husband of 17 years, Paul Davolt (from Stockton). Together they have two boys in Phillip 15 and Joey 10. Paul recently graduated from law school and is with the Malkmus Law Firm in Springfield and Barbara is the Public Administrator for Polk County. She ran for office last year and won! She is a guardian for people who have disabilities and also handles some descendants' estates. She loves what she is doing. She still sees Lisa Scott (Martin), Jeremy MacLaughlin, Lewane Mashburn and Mary Ann Callaway around. (Interesting note- Barbara said that they have always lived in Bolivar except for 2 years she lived in California while Paul served in Desert Storm. That got me wondering how many of our Bolivar Graduates served in Desert Storm. A topic for another time)

Class of 1989

Carrie Kallenbach (Gordon) - It was fun to hear from Carrie. She heard about the site from Kahlie Brown (Krtek). Carrie is living in Belmont, California (in between San Francisco and San Jose) where she lives with her husband John and daughter Eleanor 2. They also have another one on the way in March. Carrie works as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. Now Carrie brought up some stories from High School that I can't wait to chat with her about further. Also, I was out in San Francisco on business in September for 8 days! If I had know she lived in the Bay Area, I would have arranged to meet her and her hubby out for Dinner one night! Next time Carrie! Send pictures too.

Class of 1990

Marian Derryberry - Marian emailed me from Boston, MA where she lives. She didn't tell me too much except that she enjoys coming to the site and reading about everyone. She did send this picture of her and her son Miles along with Carrie Kallenbach (Gordon) and daughter Eleanor when they visited Boston. Two Bolivar Grads living on opposite coasts that still keep in contact. That is cool! Thanks for the picture Marian!

Class of 1991

Jennifer Appleby (Follis) - Jennifer heard about the site from Michelle Kirby (Darby). She lives in Bolivar with her husband of 8 years Jack Follis (Class of 1989). Together they have 2 kids in Jacey 6 and Jackson 4. They also have one on the way in June! Congratulations. Jennifer graduated from SMSU with a Bachelors and Masters in Social Work and worked for Family Services for 3 years. She stopped when they had their first child, but she is partners in a clothing store on the Bolivar Square called Westide For Her. Jack owns H&H Farm Products and he has been there for 13 years now. A couple of years ago they built a house on the edge Jennifers parents farm (in Cliquot). She sent me an email last Wednesday and they were preparing to go to Disneyland on Thursday where they go every year. Jennifer keeps in regular contact with Michelle Kirby (Darby), Sarah Hoffstetter (Parrott), Betsy Cribbs (Berry), Kasey Stewart (Sallee), Kami Stanley (Macias), Cyrie Coover (Cunningham), and Tracy Wakefield (Hillenburg). Jennifer noticed in an earlier post how Jon Esterline and I were tracking Liberator Football this year. Her nephew is Brayden Payne, a junior runningback for the team. They took a tough loss last week to Cassville in Sectionals ending the Liberators season. A real heartbreak she said, but they were fun to watch. Send some pictures Jennifer!

Julie Wollard (Trout) - Julie is one of the dozen or so that started her email with " I doubt you remember me but...". Of course I remember you. We went to First Baptist Church together and did all the same activities together. I remember you Julie! :) She lives northwest of Bolivar with her husband of 12 years now, Brian. They met while attending SBU where Julie got her degree in History. They have two sons in Christian 8 and Jonathan 4. Julies parents live across the street from them. (I hope Brian likes the in-laws!). Julie volunteers at the Polk County Genealogical Society Library in Bolivar. The Society bought the old Public Library that was on the square when the Library built a new building 5 years ago. She is the treasurer for the genealogy society and in her free time she helps people trace their family history (Good to know). Brian works for John Kallenbach (Class of 1989) at A-1 Tool Inc. John is married to Maria Kincaid (Class of 1991) and one of Julie's best friends. (Have either one of them contact me Julie). Thanks for contacting me Julie and send some pictures soon!

That was it for the week. I am relying on all of you to help me track down people and get in contact with me. If you have a sibling or good friend that is a Bolivar Grad, have them spend 3 minutes to drop me an email and let me know what they are up to these days.

Requests:

Messageboard - The Bolivar Message Board is now at 25 Members! That is awesome because my goal is to have 100 people sign up for it to really make it a cool community.
Next Tuesday from 8:00pm - 8:30pm CST we are going to have a Bolivar Grads Chat Session. The messageboard allows us to create a Chat Room for up to 25 people to chat and have a good time. I hope to have the room filled to the Max if possible, but you have to be a REGISTERED member of the boards to participate. If you need the instructions of how to register, send me an email and I will send it to you.

Bolivar Grads Map - If you have not done so yet, take 10 seconds to put yourself on the Bolivar Grads Map by clicking HERE. It just helps us visualize how spread out we are and who might live close to us. You don't even need to contact me to be a part of that. For example Scott Emmert, Will Westmoreland, and Amy Wollard (McHolland) have not contacted me, but put themselves on the map. That is great, it lets me know that people are coming to the site and enjoying it even if they have not sent me an email!

High School Pictures - I am requesting anyone who might have candid pictures of Bolivar Graduates during the High School years to either post them on the Bolivar Messageboard or send them to me so I can post them for you. The Forum for High School Pictures is HERE and I would love to see more on there so we can go down memory lane some time.

The Deceased - Over the past month I have learned that some of the people we grew up with and went to Bolivar High School with have moved on. Ronda Fink (Riden) let me know about Mike McGowan, Carrie Kallenbach (Gordon) informed me about Mark Garrett and Julie Wollard (Trout) told me about Shawn Degraffenreid. I have put together a Class Tracker on the Messageboard that you can see HERE. I have made a note of those that are now Deceased. If you know someone that has passed on, please let me know. I want to do something to honor those that we have lost, but I still thinking of ideas. Thanks.

Until Next Time!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com

Where in the world is JR?

2005-11-15T20:53:00.000-06:00

Well it has been almost a week since my last post because I have been recovering from surgery and I have been busy.

Tonight I will have a new post for everyone and some interesting developments for Bolivar Grads!

Talk to you all soon!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988

Bolivar Grads is 1 Month Old

2005-11-09T20:09:00.000-06:00

So tomorrow will mark the 1 Month mark of when I decided to build this site. So far I have to say it is a success. Consider this... I only kept in contact with 4-5 people that I went to High School with and so far in 30 days I have been in contact with over 70 Bolivar Grads (more than 2 a day) and I would guess that another 100-150 other Bolivar Grads know of my site, but have not contacted me yet. Not bad.

Since Monday, I have heard from these folks.

Class of 1987

Karen Myers (Ice) - Karen emailed me from Olathe, Kansas after I left a voicemail on her answering machine. She has been married to Van Ice (Also Class of 1987) for 13 years and have two girls in Emily 5 and Sydney 2. Karen said she can't handle see the picture of me on the website because I am forever etched in her mind as a kid and not a man with a wife and kids. Van is a software developer for a company called Archer Technologies and Karen is now staying at home with her girls. She was working for a small Telecom company in downtown KC, but after the birth of Sydney she just had a hard time leaving her baby with someone else everyday. Karen and Van are big outdoor enthusiasts and became SCUBA certified 5 years ago. Karen said that she received an email from Steve Campbell about a month ago and she ran into Mick Simmons while taking her car (ok she admits, minivan) in to be serviced at Nissan. She also said that she knew Tricia Crippin (Vogt) lived in Columbia and Chris Summers was a Mortgage Broker in Springfield. Thanks for those leads! Karen also said that she would send some pictures soon.

Class of 1988

Laurie Nash (Fisher) - Laurie emailed me from Pleasant Hope, MO. She has been married to Paul Fisher (Class of 1985) for 12 years now and they have a 7 year old son named Landon. He is a cute boy and apparently likes to play basesball. Paul is an electrician and Laurie has worked for Dr. Stephen Young, D.D.S. for the past 15 years. Laurie said that the Bolivar Grads website is making quite a buzz. I will have to aske her more details about that. She is going to send some new pictures that they just had taken, but here is a great picture of her and Landon!

Class of 1989

Jill Jones (Jackson) - Jill emailed me from Fort Smith, Arkansas. She has two children in Jay 10 and Lizzie 8. She is a K-6 Literacy Coach for the Fort Smith Public School District. She is on track to get her Masters in December. Jill talks with Sharon Long (Muir) quite a bit and below is a picture of the two. If you want to email Jill and see pictures of her kids, check out her post on the Bolivar Messageboard by clicking here.

Brett Stottlemyre - Brett emailed me from Kansas City where he lives. He heard about the website from Ashley Carpenter (Wilson) who he keeps in touch with. Brett said he is single, having fun, and still stuck in the 80's listening to Depeche Mode and The Cure. (I still listen to them too!) He also still keeps in touch with Tim Steely. Have him email me Brett! Here is a recent picture of Brett at a Halloween party.

Class of 1990

Dawn Keeling (Petersen) - Dawn emailed me from the Bolivar area. She and her husband of 15 years, Tommy, live in the northeast part of Polk County just 25 minutes from Bolivar. They have 1 son in Cord who is 13 and already stands 6'2" and has a size 15 shoe. They also have 3 daughters in Layne 9, Jordan 6 and Grayce 1. She works with her mom and her sister Brandi (Class of 1994) at Keeling Accounting/H&R Block of Bolivar. Dawn is the manager there and she also owns Huckleberry Layne Candles & Gifts located in the same office building. In her spare time she makes wax candles and other wax creations. The Petersens live on a farm and own Texas Longhorn Cattle and other critters as well. (How do you find all the time for this Dawn? Wow). She is going to send the site to her sister-in-law, Lea Ann. That is Lea Ann Trenary(Class of 1989) who married her brother Rob Keeling (Class of 1987). Hopefully I will hear from them soon. Also Dawn said she would send some family pictures soon!

It is always awesome to hear from a new person that I have not talked to in 15-18 years. Please keep forwarding this site and asking people to send an email to me to let me know what they are up to.

I probably won't be active over the next two days since tomorrow is D-day for me. I mentioned that I am having surgery tomorrow to remove my Gall Bladder. Yuck! But I hope to catch up with emails on Saturday.

Make sure to Register for the Messageboards here and please add yourself on the Bolivar Grads Map here (This literally takes 5 seconds to do).

Talk to you soon!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
email me at: JR@bolivargrads.com

New Contacts and Updates - 11/7/05

2005-11-07T19:07:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend I had a few people contact me which was great, but now I am relying on everyone to get people to email me. Right now we have about 60 people that have contacted me, but we have had twice that many Bolivar Grads that have come to the site and read it (many times), yet they have not contacted me.

If you are a Bolivar Grad, and have not contacted me, send me an email at JR@bolivargrads.com .

Our goal is to also register 100 people on the messageboards. So far in just 3 weeks, we have signed up 15. If you need instructions of how to register, email me. It takes 1 minute to register. You can go to our messageboards by clicking here. I added some new things in the Class Tracker Forum. There you can see who has contacted me and who is a Messageboard Member. If there is anyone missing from those lists, please email me and let me know.

Also, make sure to enter yourself on the cool Bolivar Map feature. Click here. There is a permanent button in the right column called "Where Are We".

Now for the Contacts and Updates.

Class of 1987

Tammy Brown (Jenkins) - I don't believe Tammy thinks I remember her by how she wrote her email. I do! When I was a freshman, I had shop class with her and Lisa Grey. Tammy emailed me from Bolivar where she lives with her husband and 3 children Brittany 19, Cody 17 and Corey 12. She also has 2 step children. The amazing thing that she told me is that she has a 10 month old grandson named Daylyn. WOW! Now that is amazing. Send some pictures Grandma!

Class of 1988

Daniel Hicks - Daniel emailed me over the weekend. He is a career soldier in the Air Force and is 4 years away from being able to retire with full pension. Over the years he has been stationed in Mississippi, Alaska, Florida, and Oklahoma. He was deployed in the 1991 Gulf War - Desert Storm and the recent War - Operation Iraqi Freedom spending time in Saudia Arabia, Baharain and Kuwait. Recently he has lived in Tuttle, OK with his wife, Lori Saunders of Humansville, and his girls Chelsi 14 and Shaylin 9. His wife and kids are still in Oklahoma but Daniel has recently been deployed to Iceland for a year. (Why is the U.S. in Iceland???) So Daniel is probably going to be a little bored in his downtime and hopes to read more highlights on BolivarGrads. He also brought up a fun Halloween memory we had our Junior year. I hope he posts it so I can add my memories of it as well! You can now find Daniel on the Bolivar Grads Map!

Class of 1989

Kahlie Brown (Krtek)- Kahlie emailed me from 2 miles north of Bolivar where she lives with her husband, Gary Krtek (Class of 1991). They have been married for 10 years and have two boys in Garrett 5 and Kaleb 2. Kahlie works at Citizens Memorial Hospital as Assistant Supervisor of Patient Accounts while Gary is self employed building custom cabinets and has a shop at their home. Kahlie still keeps in contact with Mark and Angela Legan (Payne), Carrie Kallenbach (Gordon) and Susie Hale (Heavin). She said she would get the word out about Bolivar Grads. Thanks Kahlie!

Class of 1990

John Vaughan - It was very cool to hear from John Vaughn. He and I had a blast going to the FBLA national contest in Cincinatti my Senior Year! John is a lawyer in a 2 man firm in Springfield, MO. {He said downtown Springfield, but after living in Chicago for 13 years, that doesn't classify as downtown :)} He went to SBU for his undergrad and then graduated from UMKC Law. He and his partner own www.missouritraffictickets.com under their umbrella site www.ustrafficktickets.com . This is very good knowledge for me to know. If I ever get a ticket in Missouri, I will be calling you John. John married Amy Stark, the daughter of our English teacher Mrs. Stark. Together they live in Ozark, MO where Amy is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist. They have two boys in Brady 4 and Zack 1 1/2. John is an elder in his church, Fellowship Bible Church of the Ozarks, and he also runs his own blog at www.wordhurdle.com. I just bookmarked it. With John's law degree he has been giving some thought about going into Politics. Remember the great time in Cincinatti John?! I will be expecting a cabinet appointment upon your election :). Johns sister Johnna Vaughan (Lynch) now lives in Nixa with her husband Otto Lynch of Bolivar. Here is a recent picture of the Vaughans.

Sharon Long (Muir) - Sharon emailed me from Kansas City, MO. She and her husband of 7 years Rob Muir (Class of 1992) live in Northland which is near Liberty, MO. Sharon works for Sprint/Nextel in Overland Park, KS and Rob is a Firefighter for the City of Kansas City, MO. They have a 2 year old son named Ethan. Sharon said they still have lots of ties to Bolivar with Parents, Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts and Cousins still living there. Also Sharon's brother Paul Long lives in Bolivar with his wife and 3 kids. For the past 5 years Sharon has been a volunteer and speaker for the Kansas City Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation. Sharon got involved with the AF after she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. If you would like to learn more about this type of arthritis, you can log on to www.arthritis.org . She also keeps in regular contact with quite a few Bolivar Grads including Jill Jones (Jackson), Shawna Davolt (Rocco), Mary Helen Stephens (Jordan), Janet Hewlett (Atwood), Lynn McFarland (Ward), Chris Woods, Brad Isdell, Amy Wollard (McHolland), Barbara Gothard (Lee), Scott Emmert, and Kevin Cribbs. Send them my way Sharon!

Matt Roberts - I was happy to hear from Matt. (He was on the FBLA Nationals trip to Cincinatti that I mentioned in John Vaughans highlights. The other 3 people that went with us were Lori Pulley, Steven Golden and I believe Kahlie Brown). We were taken by Mrs. Morehouse and Ms. Miller.) Matt emailed me Columbus, OH where he is an Assistant Professor at THE Ohio State University. He is starting his 5th year in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics. He has been married for 11 years and has two sons in Sam 6 and Ben 4. Matt says he makes it up to Chi-town at least 2 times a year so he would drop me a line the next time he is up. I will hold you to that Matt! Make sure to have your sister Mary Roberts (Preston) contact me as well.

Grady Davolt - Grady was forwarded this site by his brother Michael Davolt. He has been living in Columbia, MO for the past 15 years. He has been married for 8 years to his wife Vicki and they have a 2 year old son Colby. After 14 years of Non-Profit work, Grady has decided to go out on his own and build his Real Estate "Empire". He is the co-owner of a company called Ten Talents LLC and is an Agent there. In addition to his business, he has been consulting with a company on their operations and management structure. Grady wanted me to let everyone know that if you are in Columbia and need a place to stay, his house is always open. Send some pictures of you and your family Grady!

UPDATES:

Class of 1986

Betsy Fullerton (Eckols) - Betsy currently lives in San Antonio, TX (Home of the Saints). She has been married for 16 years to Stewart Eckols and they have three children in Alexandra 15, Blace 5, and Trey 15 months. Betsy's husband was active duty in the Military for 9 years and now works for the Department of Defense. Due to this, they have lived in 5 different states and 2 countries including 9 years in the U.K. She must miss the Fish n' Chips because she said that after Alexandra graduates High School, they want to move back. Betsy has been a homemaker most of the 16 years and she is the definition of a true Soccer Mom. Her family is still around Bolivar so she gets back a couple of times a year. She said that she would forward my link to her sister, Jenny Fullerton. Come on Jenny, drop me a line!

Class of 1987

Laurie Morehouse (Ball) - You can read Lauries Bio on an earlier post, but here is a great picture of her and her family. Thanks Laurie!

Class of 1988

Bobby Miller - Bobby sent in this picture of him and his family who are now living in Tennessee.

Class of 1991

Shelly McMasters (Wyatt) - Shelly lives in Battlefield, MO with her husband Chris Wyatt who is a Nixa graduate. They are expecting their first child in March (a girl). Congratulations!!! Exciting times. She has worked for Jack Henry & Associates since 2001. JHA is a technology provider for the Financial Industry. She started with the company as a Corporate Manager but was promoted last year to a Project Manager for 4sight which is an application for imaging/processing for the banking industry. Shelly is also finishing up her BS in Business Management. Shelly was also telling me of how she found some old pictures of her and Terrah Hale (Kelso) at a High School music competition. Scan them and send them to me Shelly! I will post them on the Bolivar Grads Messageboards under High School Pictures!!!

Renee Morehouse (Jones) - I posted about Renee in my last post, but here are two pictures of her with her kids Ash and Grey (cuties)!

Thanks to everybody that dropped me an email over the past 4-5 days. Please forward this site to other people you keep in contact and have them send me an email or give me a call. I don't know if I will post again this week since I am having surgery on Thursday to remove my Gallbladder. This is my first time in surgery so I don't know what to expect. Hopefully I can post again this weekend.

Until next post!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com
Cell Phone 630-841-5129

Bolivar Grads Network Reaches 50 Members!

2005-11-02T19:49:00.000-06:00

{Here is a good long post for you}

Bolivar Grads has been up a few weeks and already 50 people have made contact with me. I also would say there is twice that many people who know about the site but have not contacted me so far.

I am relying on all of the members to forward this on to Bolivar Alumni that you keep in contact with and have them send me an email.

Here are some new members.

Class of 1987

Kim Vest (Jarman) - Kim has been married to Leslie Jarman (Class of 1988) since 1993. They live just south of Bolivar in Brighton, MO with their 4 dogs (a yorkie, beagel, & 2 boxers), a cat and some cows. Kim works at St. Johns Hospital in Springfield as a registered nurse and Les owns his own business painting automobiles. Together they do a lot of lake camping and 4 wheel riding. Kim said that they see Steve and Kim Hawk (Class of 1988) and Shelly Abel (Chaney), Linda Abel (Perkins) and Bruce Hood (who is their Vet). Thanks for sending the recent picture Kim!
THEN

NOW

Shelly Abel (Chaney) - Shelly actually called me Sunday night and we chatted a bit. She then followed up with an email to give us the scoop on what she is doing. She lives in Orrick, MO which is just East of Kansas City. Shelly and her husband Larry have been married 9 years and they have 4 children in Brooke 17, Brina 15, Brock 12 and Brianna 11. She said they are a handful and I believe her. I was really impressed with Shelly's activities she is involved with. She is very involved in the PTO and has been a member for 9 years, she has been President of the Orrick Swim Club for 4 years, and has been in the Town Sorority (Beta Sigma Phi) since 1999 where she has been Vice President for 4 years and President for 2 years. She has been working for Easley's Auto Auction for the last 5 years and merchandised for Archway Merchandising for the last year and loves it. She even cleans houses on side for extra cash. Shelly...tell me your secret of how you find all the time?
In March of 2003 her husband Larry broke his neck. Thankfully he is not in a wheelchair but he is still recovering and going to college and Shelly is there to help him.
She still keeps in touch with Kim Vest, Shane Davolt, Jill Wilkerson, Lisa Wolfe, Mike Hale, and of course her sister Linda Abel (Perkins) who is living in Bolivar. Shelly promised to send some pictures soon and I can't wait!!! Since a lot of people have promised to send pictures, I am going to have a post dedicated to current pictures of Bolivar Grads.

Class of 1988

John (Chris) Smith - I have mentioned that I have contact with Chris in an earlier post, but I have not highlighted him yet. We all knew him as John Smith at Bolivar High, but in college John decided to go by his middle name Christopher. Since I went to SBU with him and roomed with him for a year in Springfield when I went to SMS, I think of him as Chris now. Chris has lived in Phoenix, AZ for over a decade now. For most of the time there he was a Director at a Telemarketing Center, but after working in a call center for more than 10 years he got burned out on it. A couple of years ago he decided to go into insurance and now he works as an Insurance Agent. He is married to his wife Lisa and together they have a two daughters in Shania 7 and Christian (goes by Cookie) 4. Chris keeps in contact with Brad Roweton, Daniel Hicks, Stephanie Farmer (Lawson) and Brian Leach. Here are some recent pictures of him with his wife and his girls.

Ronda Fink (Riden) - Another person that I mentioned that in my very first post was Ronda Fink (Riden). She was partially to credit (or blame) for me starting this website. She was looking through the SBU Alumni Letter and saw that they had published my email address. So one day I get this email out of the blue asking if I remember Ronda Fink. Of course I do! Ronda is still in Bolivar where she takes care of her folks business while her husband of 11 years owns an automotive shop. They have 1 boy who just turned 7. On the weekends Ronda and her husband race 4 wheelers. Hmmm, maybe you should hook up with Les and Kim Jarman! It was so great to get the email from Ronda out of the blue that it started me down a path of wondering how more people I went to school with are doing today.

Class of 1989

Rob Parsons - Rob emailed me from Bolivar where he lives and works with his wife of 12 years Michelle (Rhoads) who was Class of 1991. Michelle works at Citizens Memorial Hospital as a Speech-Language Pathologist. At CMH, Michelle ran into Raquel Vest (Boyce) who told her to check out this site (Good job Raquel). Rob (I keep wanting to call you Robbie) works as a self employed contractor. The Parsons don't have any kids but Rob did inform me that they have 2 very spoiled poodles. I think we all remember Rob's mom - Mrs. Parsons (Now Jean Vincent) the High School History teacher. She has been living in Maryland but will be returning to Bolivar in 2006 for good. Rob said that Michelle was going to mention the site to Jeff Miller and Jenny Gambriel (Eggert) who also work at CMH. Rob on the other hand was going to let his sisters Lisa Parsons (Hammett) and Lori Parsons (Ellis) know about the site.
Make sure to send some pictures of you, Michelle and the poodles Rob!

Class of 1991

Tricia Myers (Pyle) - Tricia emailed me from the Bolivar suburb of Polk, MO :) . She has been married to Jeff Pyle (Class of 1984) for 10 years. They have two boys in Samuel 6 and Matthew 4. Jeff works at Vestal Equipment in Bolivar while Tricia has worked at Citizens Memorial Hospital for the past 13 years in the Information Systems Department as a software specialist. Many of us will remember her mom - Mrs. Myers who worked in the lunch room and called everyone "Hun". She retired in 1999 but is still in Bolivar. She was going to forward the website on to Sandy Branstetter, Lynn Breshears (Quennoz), Aaron Hood, Jeff Miller, Gary Krtek, Jennifer Earl (Gifford), Jennifer Gambriel (Eggert) and of course her big brother Tim Myers. We look forward to hearing from them and would love some pictures of you and your family Tricia.

Renee Morehouse (Jones) - Renee emailed me from Raytown, MO just outside of Kansas City where she has lived since graduating from William Jewell College. She has been married to Sam Jones since 1995 and they now have 3 children in Ashlyn 4, Greyson 2, and Peyton 2 months. Renee travels every other week to Bolivar to work with his sister Laurie and Mom on their business venture called ELR. You can read more about that in the last post for Laurie Morehouse (Ball). Renee is also a Loan Officer out of her home working for LaDon Mortgage out of Springfield, MO. Her husband Sam is a Juvenile Detective for the Raytown Police Department. She said that her life is really busy with two jobs and 3 children but they are very happy. She has promised to send me some Christmas pictures that they are having taken in a couple of weeks. We can't wait!

Some New Toys!

Ok, BolivarGrads.com has a couple of new features to use. The first one is a cool map that will show where everyone is in the United States. There is a button on the right column under links called "Where are we?" Click on that and fill in your name and zip code and it will put you on our Bolivar Grads Map!

The second new toy is a tool called Blogarithm. It is a service that will email you when a new post has been made on the website. You can put your email in and it usually will email you the next morning to say that there is an update to the site.

I post every few days because I want to get a few profiles of people in before I post again. Now I am needing some more people to contact me, so I really need your help to pass the word along to folks and have them email me.

Look for my next post soon!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com
Cell: 630-841-5129

Oh, and people keep asking to see pictures of me and my two little girls - Payton and Macy. Here you go! A picture of me an my wife Kristen in Vegas and the girls.

Busy Week Part 2

2005-10-30T09:28:00.000-06:00

It is almost Halloween, and as a teenager in Bolivar that was exciting! It is 20 years ago this year that Bolivar made national news with the "Egg Law". But that still didn't stop us. We might not have used Eggs, but there was plenty of soap, shaving cream, fireworks, and toilet paper. I created a thread on the messageboard asking for people to post their memories of Halloween in High School. You can see it here. Currently we have 10 members on the Messageboards, so register if you have not yet. If you need instructions of how to register, email me and I will send you the instructions.

Here are some more Bolivar Grads that I have been in contact with.

Class of 1986

Janet Cline (Ward) - Janet had lived in St. Louis for the past 18 years. She has worked in the IT field for awhile as she was the IT Director at Wave Tecnologies and a Product Manager in Internet Services with AG Edwards. In July she moved back to Southwest Missouri and is a Business Systems Analyst at Cox Health. She and Greg Greven are the ones building www.bolivarreunion.com . Janet has an 11 year old son who is an excellent hockey player. He plays on the Springfield Spirit team and just made an All-Star team in Arkansas. Her sister Cheryl Cline (class of 1988) lives in Neosho, MO.

Class of 1987

Laurie Morehouse (Ball) - Laurie emailed me from Bolivar. She has been married to Jeff Ball (Class of 1983) for 13 years and has a son Brandon 8 and chocolate lab named Max. Many of us will remember Laurie's mom, Sheryl Morehouse who taught at BHS for over 25 years. Laurie is working with Sheryl and her sister Renee Morehouse (Jones) (Class of 1991). They own Early Learning Resources which is a therapy company that deals with children 0-3 years old that are developmentally delayed. They have 65 therapists over Southwest Missouri that go into homes to work with children that need speech, physical, and occupational therapy and also nursing and dieticians. ELR currently has contracts with several schools. That sounds very interesting. Thanks for emailing Laurie and tell Renee to get a hold of me.

Class of 1988

Brian Mitchell - Brian emailed me from Independence, MO. In June he took the Assistant Superintendent position for Finance and Support Services for the district. He had been the Superintendent for Fair Play for the past five years. He said that in Fair Play he had 400 students to serve and in Independence he has 11,000. Big difference. Brian is married and has two kids in Madeline 5 and Andrew 2. He said he would keep checking to read more on the website and I hope he forwards it to his sister Teresa Mitchell (Class of 1990).

Terrie Flint (Reed) - Terrie emailed me from Pleasant Hope, MO. She has been married for 16 years to her husband Kenny and has an 11 year old son in Jeffrey. She had worked for Alltel for 8 years as an Administrative Assistant, but last year they layed 600 people off, so Terrie went to Cosmetology School to get her license. This week she will take the state boards to become an Instructor at the school. Good Luck Terrie! Terrie does currently teach at the Academy of Hair Design in Springfield. She teaches how to color, cut, perm and relax hair as well as manicuring, pedicuring and theory. She sees some Bolivarites on occasion, including Kim Brubeck (Wilson), Mary Ann Callaway, Laurie Nash (Fisher) and Billie Joe Cash (Marsh) (Class of 1987). Make sure to have them contact me Terrie, and send some pictures of you!

Daniel Rash - Daniel lives in Excelsior Springs, MO which is North East of Kansas City. He has been married for 13 years to his wife Rita and has 3 kids in Stephanie 6, Zoe 3, and Jonathan 5 months. He said he would send some pictures soon! After Daniel graduated from SMSU in 97 he got a job as a Software Engineer for Cerner Corporation in KC. He also gave me contact info for his brother David Rash (Class of 1986), who is working for Tracker Marine. Thanks for the heads up Daniel.

Kim Brubeck (Wilson) - Kim emailed me from Elkton where she lives with her husband of 8 years Lynn Wilson. They have two children in Hunter 8, and Avery 3. Kim is a Dental Hygienist at Dr. Steven Marshall's office in Bolivar. She still keeps in touch with Barbara Burrows (Davolt), Laurie Nash (Fisher), and Mary Ann Callaway (Waddelow). Make sure to send them my way Kim and you can send me some pictures!

Jenny Koon (Spangler) - Jenny emailed me from Bolivar where she lives with her husband of 7 years Jeff. They have a daughter named Amanda who is a Senior in HS this year and a son named John who is in Kindergarten. Jenny brought back some memories for me as she was recalling how she and I used to razz the shop teacher (Mr. Stevens) when we were freshmen. Jenny is a realtor in Bolivar and you can see her site here: www.jenniferspangler.com . She was heading out to San Francisco for a Realtor convention when she emailed me but said she would send some pictures next week!

Class of 1989

Michael Davolt - Michael emailed me from Kansas City, MO where he lives. He has been married for 3 years to his wife Denise. They have no children yet but are in the process of adopting from China. He works for Time Warner Cable where he is an Executive over Customer Care. Michael learned of the website from Matt Jones' wife, Anna. He said that each year on Memorial Day Weekend some folks from the Class of 1989 get together on Truman Lake. This coming Memorial day will mark the 12 year they have done it. Included on the Bolivar getaway has been Mike Jones, Matt Jones, Bryce Stanley, Brian Vestal, Shane Davolt, Cameron Hodges, Jack Follis, Jeff Payne and himself. Looks like a lot people we want to hear from, so send this link to them Michael. Good hearing from you!

Ashley Carpenter (Wilson) - Ashley emailed me from Bolivar, MO where she lives. She has been married to her husband Kris for 13 years and has two sons in Zakary 12 and Kobby 10. She worked for the Bolivar Herald Free Press & Missouri Color Web for a combined 10 years as a graphic designer. This year she went out on her own as a freelance designer and has a few really good clients. She has been working with Linda Wieland Ankrom of Bolivar who owns a marketing company. I asked Ashley to send some examples of her work and she did. Take a look for yourself at the bottom of this entry. She also said she would send some recent pictures soon! Ashley keeps in touch with Amber Ferguson (who sent her this link), Alanda Lockhart, and Bret Stottlemyre. Send them to me Ashley!

Class of 1991

Shannon Lightfoot - I had seen a story on Shannon Lightfoot in the Bolivar Herald Free Press a few weeks ago and it had her contact info. When I went back to get it, it had been taken down. So I called her up and talked to her. Shannon is living in Bolivar and is a single mother of two great kids in Sean 7 and Autumn Rose 5. She has her own business called Little Lambs Childcare and she does part time substitute teaching for Bolivar and Halfway school districts. The story of her in the paper dealt with her involvement with in helping Hurricane Katrina Survivors. She has been helping Intervention Ministries in Bolivar by offering some free childcare to evacuees in the area. She asked that I post these following websites to learn more about some of the efforts that can help make a difference.
http://www.nolahousing.com
http://www.hurricanehousing.net
http://www.katrinahousing.org
http://katrina.webtrix.net

That is all for now. Make sure to go register on the Bolivar Messageboards. I think we have 10 people registered now and I hope to have 100 registered by the end of the year. If you need the instructions of how to register email me. Also send me your recent pictures and forward this website to anyone you still keep in contact with!

Thank,

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com
Cell: 630-841-5129

Busy Week Part 1

2005-10-28T15:47:00.000-05:00

This was a busy week as far as people contacting me and me replying to them. I am going to have to break this post up into two parts. I hope to post part 2 either later tomorrow.

Lets start with the Class of 1986 since that was a pretty big breakthrough. This summer will be the 20 Year Class Reunion for the Class of 86. Can you believe that? I had mentioned in my last post that the first person to contact me from Class of 86 was Becky Crain, and she had already mentioned that they were looking for people for the reunion.

The next person to contact me was Dawn Neal (Cosby). In her email she pointed out a site that Janet Cline (Ward) and Greg Greven were putting together for the Class of 86. The website is www.bolivarreunion.com. After taking a look at the site, it blew me away and then I just laugh. I thought my site was the only thing going regarding Bolivar High School Grads and I was wrong. However, the Bolivar Reunion site is exclusively for the Class of 1986 and my site is tracking down Bolivar High School students from 1985-1991, so it is a bit broader. So if you are from the Class of 1986 and you have not registered for the reunion this summer, go this site. I put a permanent link over on the right side in the Links column.

Dawn Neal (Cosby) - She didn't tell me what is going on with her, but I did happen to run in to her out in in 2004 when I was in Springfield, MO. As I mentioned in a previous post, I usually make it down to Springtown to meet up with some college buddies to do a Fantasy Football draft. I went to Trolley's Bar & Grill owned by Aaron Buerge of "The Bachelor" fame and there I see Dawn Neal. I recognized her and went over to re-introduce myself since it had been about 18 years since I had last seen her. She looked great! Dawn works for CASA of Southwest Missouri and you can see her here http://www.casaswmo.org/staff/staffbiographies.htm . I hope to get more info soon!

Greg Greven - Talking to Greg was pretty cool. He and I went back and forth on email on Wednesday night. He has been married for 10 years now and lives in Springfield, MO. He serves on the Board of Directors for a few organizations and does presentations to High Schools, Churches, and Organizations. He gives presentations on Spinal Cord Injury Prevention , Disability Awareness, Socioeconomic concerns and other topics he is qualified to speak on. Since he is helping Janet Cline (Ward) with the Bolivar Reunion of 86 website, I was able to help him with contact information for 3 people he was tracking down. I will get a list of the people they are still missing contact info and post it here to see if anyone can help them get in contact.

Betsy Fullerton (Eckols) - Betsy stopped by to say that the page looked great. She didn't say anything about where she is or what she is doing now, but she did ask how to register for the messageboards here. That is a good question. I will be sending out instructions to everyone who has contacted me on how to register for the messageboards. There you can post your contact info on a hidden board, chat, post topics, and post pictures. I figure once we get a larger network of people, the messageboards will get much more interesting. I hope to find out more about what Betsy is doing and let you know.

Kerri Koon (Simon) - Kerri emailed me from Columbia, MO. She has been married for 12 years now to Doug and they have 3 children in Claire 8, Chloe 4, and Cole 3. She works as a CPA for the University of Missouri Healthcare. Kerri said that they stay very busy with all of the kids activities. Kerri then pointed me to her sister, Jenny who I had just received an email from. I will get to her in a bit. Thanks Kerri!

Class of 1985

Lisa Jenkins (Beals) - Lisa is the first member of Class of 85 to contact me. They just had their 20 Year Class Reunion this year. She said it was great to see old friends then. Currently Lisa lives in Bolivar and works at Citizens Memorial Hospital in surgery. She has been married for 10 years and has a daughter, Beth 3. Lisa has worked at CMH for 15 years and happens to work there with her brother Mike Jenkins (Class of 1988). She gave me the scoop on him and his email address. I will contact Mike and let you know what he is up to.

Class of 1987

Melissa Spiegel (Burks) - Melissa emailed me from Bolivar and got my message through my Classmates.com messages. She is married to Robert Burks (Class of 1985) who just had his 20 Year Class Reunion this year. They have 2 boys in Hunter 10, and Hayden 4. Melissa is the Business Manager for Community Publishers Inc. which owns local newspapers including the Bolivar Herald-Free Press. She was going to pass this site along to her friends that she still keeps in contact with like Teri Pursley (Spence), Terri Hoffman (Barngrover), Jennifer Potts (Randolph), Christy Hagerman (Mitchell), Julie Moffett (Graver), Laurie Morehouse (Ball), Sherri Hobbs (Hess), Kim Vest (Jarman), and Malissa Davis (Julien).

Terri Pursley (Spence) - Well Melissa Spiegel (Burks) wasn't kidding when she said she would forward this site to her friends. 20 minutes after I got Melissa's email, I got an email from Terri. Terri is in Springfield, MO and has been a paralegal at a law firm called Lathrop & Gage for the past 10 years. She has two children in Ashli 16 and Ashton 14 who are students at Hillcrest High School. (Now that is crazy talk when you think about your High School friends being able to have High School kids themselves! How time flies!). Ashli is actually being recruited by several colleges (Including KU) to play softball. Her husband is a track coach at Missouri State and she says their lives are full and happy.

That is it for now. Be sure to check for Part 2 when I talk about:
Terrie Flint (Reed)
Brian Mitchell
Daniel Rash
Kim Brubeck (Wilson)
Jennifer Spangler (Koon)
Michael Davolt
Ashley Carpenter (Wilson)
and more!

Also, there are people that know about the website and are forwarding it on to people, but have not contacted me yet. For example, Amber Ferguson forwarded the site to Ashley Carpenter, but I have not heard from her yet. Drop me an email and let me know what you are doing!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com
Cell Phone: 630-841-5129

Word is getting out

2005-10-24T19:31:00.000-05:00

{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

Back to the Hunt

2005-10-21T08:45:00.000-05:00

So I took a week off from the Bolivar hunt since I had a lot of things going on over the weekend, and then I was watching the Cardinals every night in the NLCS. Now that St. Louis is out of the playoffs, I am less concerned about baseball.

But during this past week, I still talked to a few folks that I have not talked to in a LONG time. First, I talked to Brad Roweton (Class of 88) last Friday. Brad is the Athletic Director at Buffalo High School now and also coaches Baseball there as well. He is married to Alisson Pursely (Class of 91) and they have two boys. When I talked to Brad, he was getting ready to go to the Bolivar High Football Game. At the time, Bolivar was undefeated and ranked pretty high in Missouri 3A. Bolivar is coached by Brad's younger brother Lance. Unfortunately for Bolivar, they were beaten by Carthage that night. You can follow Liberator Football here!

I also talked to Dr. Cameron Hodges. Doesn't it sound weird to say Dr.? He is a surgeon in Springfield, MO as we saw in my last post. I had left a voicemail with his service, and he called me on his way home in the car. Cameron started the conversation with "JR, I don't think I have talked to you in 15 years!" That is pretty accurate. We caught up for about 15 minutes and I found out that he comes to Chicago occasionaly for conferences. He was just up a few months ago with his wife and kids. We agreed that next time, we will try and do a dinner together.

Eric DeRossett returned my email that I sent him. He is living in Bolivar and teaching/coaching in Weaubleau, MO. He has been married for 14 years and has 10 year old son and 7 year old daughter. He coaches the Girls Varsity Basketball team there and is in the process of trying to turn their program around. Sounds fun! And it was great to here from him. Send me updates Eric!

I also got an email from Mary Beth Vance (Jones). She is working at SBU as an Administrative Assistant and is married to Ricky Vance (Class of 89). She did not mention if she has any kids, but I am looking forward to talking to her soon.

I had stated in my last post how fun it is to hear from someone out of the blue. Well last night I got an email from Raquel Alvarado (Vest). She had seen Jeremy MacLaughlin at work, and he told her of my site. (Thanks Jerm! You get extra points). She mentioned that she has thought about trying to contact Greg Redford and hopes this site helps her. Don't worry Raquel, Bolivargrads.com will link you back up. Raquel works at Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar and has one son. She says she still sees Marlene Kirby (Long), Lisa Stringfellow, and Kim Brubeck around town. Tell them all to come visit me Raquel!

Trying to Reach Out To Others
I tried contacting John Kallenbach and the email address I had for him came back as not working. I sent an email to Paul Penticuff and never heard back from him. I sent an email to Stephanie Lawson (Farmer) and have not heard back from her either.

Ronda Riden (Fink) gave me some leads on a few Bolivar Grads including Brian Mitchell, Mark Ferguson, Stacy Garretson, Carol Cunningham (Cates), Brian & Robin Wallace (Edwards), Rob Parsons, Todd Lindsay, Tom and David Campbell, Vance Vahle, Terry Stewart, and LeWane Mashburn. The best thing is to tell them to come to this website if you see them or have their email address, but I will do my best sleuthing to track them down.

Chris (John) Smith has given me some email addresses for Daniel Hicks and Carrie Roberts. I will try to get in touch with them.

Remember to tell others you see to drop me an email or give me a call when you see them!

Talk to you soon.

JR Mariottini - Class of 1988

jr@bolivargrads.com

630-841-5129

Google is your friend!

2005-10-12T22:49:00.000-05:00

So how do I track down Bolivar Grads that I have not talked to in years? Well my first step is to use Google. That is how I tracked down Chris Eyl in North Carolina after not talking to him for around 15 years. That is how I tracked Ray Crane down in Georgia after not talking with him in around 15 years as well. How do I do it? Simple.

Here is how I tracked them down! Go to www.google.com .

I tracked down Chris by typing in Christopher Eyl in Google. This site comes up number one. No scroll down to the 9th photo and...BAM! There is a picture of my best friend from 8th and 9th grade. Next step was getting the phone number off the site and calling him up. Here is the link:
http://www.elon.edu/community/pericles/service.asp

Ok, now let me just show you a few searches that I did in the last 30 minutes on Google. When you do these searches, especially on a common name like a "Brian Mitchell", it is really tough to verify if it REALLY is the person you are looking for. The Holy Grail of these searches is coming up with Photo proof of the person like I got with Chris Eyl. But take a look at some of these.

Google search "Paul Penticuff"
You get this on the first match. PHOTO PROOF! I have not contacted him yet, but will.
http://www.bscr-law.com/attorney.cfm?AG=6584464D-6BB6-49C4-A416-1B227491248C

Google search "Cameron Hodges"
I think it is the 4th match down. PHOTO PROOF! I have not contacted him, but will.
http://www.stjohns.com/physicians/docinfo.aspx?doctor_id=489

Google search "Erica Noyes" (This is Erica Moore who married Tim Noyes)
Go to the first match. Then click on "About the Artist". PHOTO PROOF! I have sent her an email but have not heard back yet.
http://www.ericanoyes.com/aboutartist.html

Google search "Chris Redford"
I believe it is the second match that comes up. PHOTO PROOF! I talked to Chris about 6 months ago, but have not contacted him about this site yet.
http://www.ktbs.com/news/people.html?detail=39

Google search "John Kallenbach MO" We are adding MO in there to narrow our search.
First we see some Bolivar phone numbers that I could try. But, if you go down to about the 7th match, you get PHOTO PROOF! I have not contacted him yet, but will! Here is the link:
http://1108.att.statebarattorneys.com/

Sometimes you don't get Photo Proof, and you have to make a determination if that is really the person you are trying to contact. Here are two examples.

Google search "Eric Derossett"
The second match brings me this link. No Photo Proof that this is the person I want, but this is a pretty uncommon name. The cool thing is, it shows his email address, so I sent him an email with my info and this site. I have not heard from him yet (Heck, it might not be him).
http://www.weaubleau.k12.mo.us/Teacher%20Email%20HS.htm

Google search "Stephanie Lawson MO" This is Stephanie Farmer and we are using MO to narrow it down.
First thing I see is a phone number for Stephanie in Bolivar. But look at the second match and you get this next link. According to this, she is the administrative assistant at he Missouri Hall of Fame. Now I last talked to Stephanie about 2 years ago, and she was not working here, but...look at who is the President of the organization. Jerald Andrews. Does this ring a bell Bolivar Grads? He is a long time Bolivar resident and he was the President of the Bolivar Board of Education when I graduated in 1988. For some reason, I have a hunch that this Stephanie Lawson is the Stephanie I want to talk to. It also has an email address for her, and I much rather email her to find out than call her. At least if I make a fool of myself, it is not on the phone. So I emailed her this morning and have not heard back yet. I am getting a bit nervous that she is not the one. Time will tell. Here is the link:
http://www.mosportshalloffame.com/emailstaff.asp

To me, girls are also harder to track down than guys. Because most girls have married and have a new name, and I probably don't have that new name to look up.

Well that is a long explanation of how to use Google to track down classmates. I am going to need everybody's help if we are going to register 100 Bolivar Grads on our messageboard so we can network and catch up. So if you keep in touch with a Bolivar Grad from 1985-1991, then email them my contact info and this site. If you don't have their email address, give them a call and let them know about this site.

Keep checking back often to read some of the stuff I put up.

Later,
JR Mariottini
JR@bolivargrads.com