239 USA Reunion Page - Messages

Message Archive

Message 1

Greetings 239-ki!

This message is an invitation to join the 239 high school reunion party, taking place in USA. The original idea came from a message posted to the 239 Bulletin Board on 8/19/97.

There were lots of responses since then. People seemed to like the idea. Judging by the responses it looks like the best place for us to meet will be Boston area (it also seems to have the highest density of 239 grads).

The three big questions now are: time, place, and who is going to come. >From the BBoard messages, it looks like best times for people are the Thanksgiving or the Memorial Day weekend. The candidate locations for Thanksgiving day are as follows:

"Cafe St Petersburg" (Brookline)
"Restaurant Odessa" (Foxboro).

With Thanksgiving being only two months away, we need to know for sure how many people are going to come. Please send your responses to me or Luba Mitnik by October 21. In e-mails please indicate your votes for time, location, number of people coming and any other ideas or comments.

P.S In order to make it easier for us to process all e-mails, please mention 239 reunion in your e-mail's subject line.

P.P.S If, for any reason, you would like to stop receiving messages from us, please send us a mail with "remove" at the subject line.

Message 2, sent out on October 17, 1997

Greetings 239-er!

Well, it's been about a week since we sent out our first message. We've gotten a lot of responses. Judging from the replies, most people want to meet on the Memorial Day. So be it!

Now that we've got the date settled, there are a lot of issues to be worked out, e.g, meeting place, events, housing, etc.. We'll be sending out a message next Friday, with more specific information regarding coordination of the reunion. Meanwhile, we would appreciate any ideas and volunteers.

Finally, below you will find a list of people who have replied so far. The list is organized in the following form: , . Please let us know if anybody is missing, or information is incorrect.

Do sledushey pyatnicy,
Luba Mitnik i Sasha Vybornov.

P.S Sorry if this reaches you second time. I had some problems with my mail script.

Message 3, sent out on October 24, 1997

Dear friends,

In order to help us organize the 239 reunion on Memorial day we ask you to read this letter attentively.

Our program:

1. The Reunion Party on Saturday night (May 23rd, 1998) will be held in the restaurant Odessa. It will be a private party (nobody but us will be in the hall). The time and the directions will be given later.
2. The following Sunday (May 24cth) we are planning to organize a bus trip in Boston ("CityView" for 2 hours) . This is a minimum. Please, send us your ideas.
3. Very Important: as you know, for each meeting or reunion is it necessary to pay in advance. We will ask later everybody who is planning to come to send us a non-refundable check. The amount will include the banquet dinner in Odessa and the bus excursion in Boston. All non-dispensed money will be transferred to the 239 school and distributed among the people working there. We will inform you about every check we will get from you and about every non-dispensed during the reunion dollar. We estimate the amount as $60 per person. We will precise later the exact amount of money and the dead-line to send it to us (approx. beginning of March 98).
4. We will find out the discount rates in some hotels in Boston and give you the Hotel list. We ask 239 grads living in Boston area to reply us if they can accommodate some of the 239 grads coming from other parts in US and paying for their trip an extra money. Please, tell us if you can take care of them, if yes, how many people could you invite to stay at you place.

   4a: Those who come from other parts of US: please, let us know if you need to be placed (for how long) or you already resolved this problem.

5. Please, inform us if you come:
   - with/ without your spouses and
   - with/ without your children.
   Please, inform us if you need to have a child care during the evening reunion in Odessa.
6. Please, inform us if you need a car. We will try to organize a carpool system but we need to know in advance for how many people.
7. Please, reply several questions and send it to us:
   - your graduation year;
   - where in USA are you living now?
   - your actual job?
   - are you married?
   - do you have any children? how many? age? names?
   - do you have a connection with somebody graduated from 239? - your hobbies?
   - something special to add?
   - if living in the Boston area, can you house an out-of-state 239 graduate?
8. With Sergey Gribov's help we've put out a web page dedicated to the reunion. Check it out at http://www.sergey.com/239/reunion.html.

Message 4, sent out on December 30, 1997

Dear 239-ki!

Well, it's been about a month since you received our last message. It's really great that so many of you have taken such a deep interest in this event. Almost 76 people have singed up so far and we hope that this number will keep on growing.

We would especially like thank everybody who sent their ideas and/or offered their help in organizing the reunion. Let the new year be the year when all of us can finally meet under one roof.

S novym godom, s novym schast'yem.

Luba Mitnik and Sasha Vybornov.

P.S. Just as a reminder, you can find the most up-to-date information about the reunion on the web, at: http://www.sergey.com/239/reunion.html

Message 5, sent out on February 19, 1998

Well, the spring is near and this means that the countdown for the 239 USA reunion has begun. With the reunion being almost three months away, we need to start resolving a few organizational issues as soon as possible.

1. The reunion will take place in restaurant Odessa, Foxboro, Massachusetts on Sunday, May 24.
2. So far, 81 alumni's have registered, not counting their family members.
3. All latest updates about the reunion can be found on the World Wide Web at the following address: http://www.sergey.com/239/reunion.html.

The registration fee will include the cost of restaurant reservation as well as other activities fees (transportation, bus tours, DJ services, etc.). We will send out information on the exact amount of the registration as well as mailing directions next week. Registration deadline is March 16. We will try to process any payments received after that date but cannot guarantee your reservation. All registrations are nonrefundable.

Housing accommodations will not be included in the registration. Housing will be provided either by 239 alumni's living in Boston area or by registering directly at local hotels. A list of recommended hotels will be mailed next week.

Finally, anyone who hasn't yet sent us an e-mail with their info please do so by next Friday. This will help make the event more interesting.

Message 6, sent out on March 2nd, 1998

As promised we came to the conclusion about the "final" costs of our reunion.

According to our calculations, the cost of the reunion party will be approximately $50. This includes dinner, additional alcohol and wine, and music. We are adding $10 for any kind of unexpected expenses. So the total cost of the evening at the restaurant will be $60.

Optionally, you may choose to take a bus tour of Boston on the day of the reunion for an additional $25.

Depending on whether you choose to take the bus tour, we are expecting a check for either $60 or $85 per person.

Please keep in mind that this money is non-refundable. All money left after the reunion will be donated to the 239 school fund. We will give you a detailed report after the reunion.

The deadline for registration is March 20th. Please make all checks payable to Luba Mitnik-Gankin and send them to the following address:

Persons whose checks we will not be able to cash will not be registered. When sending checks please include answers to the following questions:

1. your graduation year
2. where in USA are you living now?
3. your actual job?
4. are you married?
5. do you have any children? how many? age? names?
6. do you have a connection with somebody graduated from 239? - your hobbies?
7. something special to add?
8. if living in the Boston area, can you house an out-of-state 239 graduate?
9. Will you be coming with children. How many? What age? (This information is absolutely necessary to organize the daycare).

We will try our best to accommodate parents coming with children in need of daycare.

Message 7, sent out on March 20, 1998

Greetings 239-ki!

Here is an update on the 239 high-school reunion:

1. The reunion will take place during the Memorial Day Weekend on Sunday, May 24. There will be two parts: a bus tour of Boston during the first half of the day and the evening at Odessa restaurant. The exact times of bus tour are yet to be determined. The reunion evening will start at the Odessa restaurant at 6:00pm and may continue until 2:00am. Address is given below. Exact driving directions will be sent out later:

Odessa Restaurant
108 Washington St, Foxboro, MA 02035
(978) 698-1727

The restaurant is located near the Foxborough Stadium and Foxborough Raceway.

2. So far we've had 52 people send their checks. With almost 110 people wishing to participate in the reunion originally, we have go a long way to go.

Please, please do send your checks as soon as possible - we need to raise enough money to make a reservation with the restaurant by the end of this month!

3. We would like to order a certain number of reunion T-shirts to be sold at the reunion. The cost would probably not go higher than $10. We'd like to know how many people would be interested. Please send your replies as soon as possible. In your reply please state how many T-shirts you would purchase and their size.

4. As promised, here is a list of hotels you might want to call if you are not from the Boston area:

1. The MidTown HotelM
220 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
tel: (617) 262-1000
800-343-1177
fax: 617-262-8739
Rates: Single$129
Double$139
Triple$149
Quad$159

2.Holiday Inn
30 Washington Street
Somerville, MA 02143
tel: 617-628-1000
fax: 617-628-0143
Single/double $89
triple$99
quad $ 109

3. Susse Chalet Boston
900 Morissey Blvd
tel 671-287-9100
fax: 617-265-9287
single/double: $80.70

4. Berkeley Residence YMCA Boston
40 Berkeley Street
Boston, MA 02116
tel: 617-482-8850
fax:617-482-9692
rates:
$28 singler
$58 double
$69 triple
includes breakfast
$2 membership fee

5. Harvard Square Hotel
110 Mount Auburn Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
tel: 617-864-5200
fax: 617-864-2409
Rates: $140 single/double

6. The Buckminster
645 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02215
tel: 617-236-7050; 800-727-2825
fax:617-262-0068
rates:
$89 single
$99 double

7. Tha Chandler Inn
26 Chandler Street
Boston, MA 02116
tel: 617-482-3450
800-842-3450
fax: 617-542-3428
Rates: $64 single
$70 double

5. Those who are getting this mail for the first time (and probably wondering what the heck this is all about :-) you can find complete info on the reunion at the following address: http://www.sergey.com/239/reunion.html. If you know someone who would want to participate but isn't on the list - please send us his/her e-mail. With over 700 people on the main 239 list its hard to keep up with daily changes.

6. If you've got something urgent, like need a ride to Boston or need a place to stay then you might want to post your message on the 239 bulletin board: http://www.sergey.com/239/bboard/bboard.html. This is probably, by far, the best way to get in touch with 239-ers ready to help.

Message 8, sent out on May 11th, 1998

Dorogie druz'ya!

Now that we have completely booked "Odessa" restaurant, it's time to give out directions. Here your go:

1. Tour of Boston:

   Those who sent us money for the tour will have a chance to see the beautiful city of Boston on Sunday, May 24. The tour will start at 11:15am at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (280 The Fenway, Boston, 617-566-1401). For directions see http://www.boston.com/gardner/directions.htm . We will start with a tour of the museum after which our guide (Natasha Zarembsky, also a 239 graduate) will take us around Boston on a bus tour. The whole tour should last around 3 hours. We should be done by approximately 2:30 pm. The bus will drop us off at the museum. If you have any questions, you may call Sasha at (781) 221 - 6949.

2. Reunion Party at "Odessa".

   Registration will start at 6:00pm. At 6:45 participants may start seating down at their tables. From 6:00 to 6:45 you will also have a chance to buy reunion T-shirts, take group pictures, start meeting your classmates, etc.

   7:00 (sharp!!!) the main program begins.
   7:00-8:00 - program prepared by the reunion committee
   8:00-8:30 - the banquet
   8:30-9:10 - performance by participants
   9:10 p.m. - 1:00 a.m. - the rest of the banquet, dancing, singing, conversations, etc.

   Address of the "Odessa" restaurant:

   108 Washington St, Foxboro, MA 02035 Phone: (978) 698-1727

   Directions:

   1. From I-95 take the US-1 SOUTH exit, exit number 9, towards WRENTHAM.
   2. Merge onto US-1 S
   3. You will travel for about 15-20 minutes from I-95 until you see Odessa restaurant on your left. Your biggest sign will be the Foxboro Stadium. About half a mile later on your left you should see Red Fox Inn hotel. Odessa is the next building after the hotel.
3. Picnic on Monday, May 25

   There will be a picnic on Monday, May 25th at 12:00 p.m. at "Prospect Hill" park in Waltham. Detailed directions will be given out at the reunion party at "Odessa".

   In short: Take exit 27-a from the route 128, take the Totten Pond Road, take the first right, park your car and go upstairs. You will see a beautiful picnic area on the hill.

Do vstrechi,

Luba i Sasha.