Reunion Wrap Up
by Linda Henry

 Well, we did it.   We finally got it together and had a wonderful reunion.  It is probably unrealistic to think we could ever be ALL together in one place again, but that doesn’t mean we won’t continue to try.  Those that were missing this time around will have special priority for the next one.  I can’t tell you how much we missed all of you that could not be there.

However, we did have a great time.  First of all, it was wonderful to meet a few of the “Next Generation”. Our Peace Corps family finally got to meet some of our extended families.

A list of attendees:
Delton Allen
Brad and Debbie Gamble
Rich and Maureen Harter with son Dan (23) and daughter Laura (20)
Joel and Sherry Hellenkamp
Chip and Linda Henry with son Adam (23)
Nate and Nellie Hine with son Amos (17)
Michael and Jackie Metzler
Becky and David Palasits with daughter Theresa (20), sons John (18) and Michael (10), we saw the Palasits kids pre-reunion at the Harter’s house and again post-reunion at the Hinnen’s house as they stayed with their grandparents in Ft. Collins during the reunion.
Brent Schaeffer and Mpopo Galetshoge
Cherry and Dan Stout
Sally Vogl
Frank Weyer

My list of highlights were:

• Friday morning, Chip and I met Frank and the Schaeffer’s at the airport and we all decided to make a surprise visit to the Harter’s house because we had a few hours to kill before check-in and finding Palasits' and Hellenkamp's had the same idea!
• Our COS Conference group photo that Rich had enlarged and a copy made for each of us. We all signed and wrote notes to one another.
• Pat brought lots of her Lesotho crafts and posters and decorated our Gathering Cabin, cabin #9. 
• Freakishly cold and rainy weather!  Lots of fresh snow on the surrounding peaks.
• Lunch all together at the Estes Park Brewery
• Watching lots of slides and laughing at ourselves 25 years ago.
• Remembering Carole and her laugh and sly humor.
• Eating pulled pork burritto's that Maureen made for Friday night dinner....and eating left overs til Sunday!
• Playing “Corn-Hole”, a simple game of throwing bean bags into a board with a hole cut into it. It's sort of like horse-shoes with two boards set 30 feet apart and 2 teams of two people.  The bags are filled with shelled corn, hence the name. Joel and Frank winning the tournament!
• Worrying about Metzler’s because they didn’t show up on Friday night, only to have them arrive in the middle of the night (they missed their plane…..long story).
• Celebrating both Britt and Delton’s birthdays on Sunday.  Pat brought Birthday cake.
• Hiking Sunday afternoon in the Rocky Mt. Nat'l Park with those of us that were left (Hine's, Hellenkamps, Schaeffers and Henry's).  It was raining so hard when we set out that the Park volunteers handed us large trash bags to use as rain gear!
• Having the Beijing Olympics running on the TV in the background.

Reunion Photos that I have so far: 
Click on any photo to start an automatic slide show or you can use the controls

Peace Corps Lesotho 1980-1982 Group Reunion
Front Row: Chip, Linda, Becky, David, Michael, Jackie, Joel and Sherry
Middle Row: Delton, Pat, Debbie, Rich, Maureen, Nellie, Sally and Cherry
Back Row: Adam, Frank, Britt, Brad, Brent, Amos, Nate, Mpopo and Dan