Community-wide reunion celebrates 5th anniversary

Fallon’s community reunion keeps growing with special activities and the number of classes who gather to mingle and reminisce about their high school days.

Now in its fifth year, Susan McCormick said the community-wide reunion is attracting more people who want to attend the upcoming weekend event and to sit under the stars listening to music Saturday night at Oats Park.

“This year we’re honoring the cases from 1953-58,” McCormick said, noting she’s overwhelmed with the number of individuals who said they were attending.

Additionally, the class of 1968 is celebrating its 50th year reunion.

Friday kicks off reunion activities with the weekly Farmers Market on East Center Street and a gathering at the Fallon Theatre. McCormick said specific classes are also gathering for dinner with the class of 1958 meeting at Sandwinds and the class of 68 getting together at the Slanted Porch. A breakfast begins Saturday at the William N. Pennington Life Center followed by a Show-n-Shine Car Show and Antique Tractors, an open swim and class reunions.

McCormick said tours and activities are planned for rest of the day at the Churchill County Museum, Fallon Theatre, the Old High School, the county library, the fire department, the Douglass House, the Old Post Office and Cottage Schools, and Mayor Ken Tedford is holding a chat at Fallon City Hall. She said the various classes and the Greenwave Hall of Fame will either have tents or tables at Oats Park. The HOF committee will be selling Greenwave T-shirts as a fundraising project.

The reunion is not only for former students. McCormick said anyone is invited to attend including former teachers, parents and friends of the Greenwave.

The William N. Pennington Life Center will also host a Sunday breakfast.

According to McCormick, last year’s crowd for the free concert was one of the biggest since the community-reunions began in 2014, the same year Nevada celebrated its sesquicentennial.

The Wyoming band Tris Munsick and the Innocents will play dance music and cover a wide variety of songs beginning at 7:30 p.m. at Oats Park’s Centennial Stage. Food and beverages will be available for sale, or attendees may bring their lawn chairs and coolers.

Earlier in the day, the band is participating in a lecture at the arts center, “Evolving Western Music,” at 3 p.m. The Innocents formed in 2012 and are based out of Sheridan. They play dance music and cover a wide variety of songs ranging from barroom standards to more edgy original works.

The Oats Park Arts Center and Arts Bar will open after the concert at 9 p.m.

On the other side of the park, the Oats Park Arts Center will have two new exhibits which open last weekend with a reception and talk.

The exhibits are Kirk Robertson’s “Homage to Collage: Mixed Media Works from Three Decades” and Jay Schmidt’s “The Middle of Nowhere: Recent Sculptures, Paintings and Collaborations.”

Robertson’s exhibit features Collage and assemblage, described by the late writer, poet and columnist as two of the most important creative strategies in 20th century art. Robertson was also an award-winning columnist for the Lahontan Valley News for many years. This is the first show in the newly renamed Kirk Robertson Gallery, formerly known as the Classroom Gallery.

Schmidt’s enormous paintings are swaddled in colors, bombarded with madness, with the obsessiveness of modern-day consumerism, commercialism and war-mongering.

For information on the reunion and community activities, call 775-423-5465 or go to the Fallon Churchill County Community Reunion Facebook page.