Grills

No, not the one's on your teeth, the one's you grill your lunch on. The park does NOT have permanent grills, so if you want to barbecue, bring your portable grill. Or your George Foreman grill, as there are power sources in the pavilion.

I hope to see more people responding to the evite so I can get an idea who's coming. Make a note of family members not on the email list too!

Meeting of the Executive Committee

Last night the Warren Family Reunion Executive Committee met to finalize plans for the 2009 Reunion. Present were Reunion Czarina; Victoria Graves, President of the Reunion Committee; Jessica Catalano and myself, Joseph Warren-CEO. All reunion plans were finalized and approved. The meeting was then moved to Arnie Beller's private club at the 2009 American-Polish festival for the purpose of experiencing our cultural heritage. A motion to introduce alcoholic beverages to the meeting was approved overwhelmingly. After a fervent open meeting with various junior members of the committee, Mrs. Graves and myself issued a joint resolution to recognize our hard work over the years and presented ourselves with congratulatory cherry bombs. We also recognized the origin of our mission being the time Grandma Warren pulled us aside to tell us we were her favorites and that she counted on us to keep the tradition of Warren family gatherings alive. Another Cherry Bomb round was introduced in a toast to Helen Warren and what she may have said to us. The rest of the minutes of the meeting are missing because someone spilled beer on them and rather than try to clean up the mess we just ordered another pitcher and headed for the dance floor. The meeting was adjourned...although we are not quite sure when that was.
Did I mention that Judy acquired a park permit that allows beer and wine consumption at the picnic? Any thing else that might turn up in your Thermos is your business. Two weeks until the reunion! Make sure your whole family knows about it.
-Joe

More Invites Out.

Today some of our guests shall be receiving their mailed invites. I am trying to send out as few as possible by contacting people via the intranet. If you have received neither, I will be searching for you. I am counting on those cousins who received the evite to forward it to the siblings and family members that aren't on the email list or whose old email address is listed, but out dated. So far I have saved over $13 in postage. I hope to do the next reunion entirely electronically. I will be gathering up new info at the reunion and through emails that I have sent out requesting addresses. I will be monitoring the evite to make sure people are responding. If I don't see that you have at least looked at the evite, I will be forced to spend a stamp on you. Don't make me do that!
Just a couple of weeks to go so pass the word and let me know. The mailed invites don't have an RSVP, but I hope those who respond via evite can include 'Mom', 'Dad','Grandma' and or 'Grandpa'.

Warren Family Reunion 2009 -Meet us under the water tower.

On Sunday July 26th we will gather at Aurand Memorial Park under the New Baltimore water tower at Noon for our semi-annual Warren Family Reunion. Bring your picnic lunch or pick up a Subway, KFC etc. on the 23 mile road strip. Make sure you log on to the Evite and reply so we can get an idea of who and how many are coming.

Bring chairs and/or blankets. There are a limited number of picnic tables. We are also asking everyone who would like, to bring a dessert for our family sweet table.

The park has a play scape for the kids and lots of space for picnic type games. We have some surprises in store -as usual!

Let me know if you have any suggestions or would like to volunteer to help set up.
-Joe

We Have a Park!!!

The Reunion is a go! Thank-you Judy. Covered pavilion, 2 baseball diamonds, soccer field, basketball courts, open space for kite flying, Frisbee tossing, a brand new play scape and swings, as well as a skate board park. Including restrooms and alcohol will be permitted. Hallelujah! And it's on a hill so we won't find our reunion under water! Stay tuned for the official reunion announcement next week!

I love a challenge

I was going to take a drive out to do a walk through of Waldenberg park in Macomb Township...until I saw it on the news, under water! And the roads around it are closed. Also under water. When I told Judy of our probable choice yesterday afternoon, she said "As long as it doesn't rain too much. It's on a flood plane." I know now! Who builds a park on a flood plane?!?

On a different note, we have decided to move the reunion to a Sunday. Several people have said it would work better for their weekly schedules. This also opens up some of the options that were closed because of the Saturday choice. We will get there. I will have the official announcement with all the logistics worked out by July first. As of now, it is tentatively SUNDAY July 26th. 12-6. Location to be announced.

Just to be safe, I think I need to light a candle in church this Sunday.

Hit a Snag.

The original park we were going to have the reunion at wants to charge us $150 to reserve the pavilion and also suggested we reserve two with the amount of people we have. I said NO.

Let me take a little time to explain the new route to putting on the reunion. Having seen the hard work and cost the host family has to deal with, we want to make the reunion easier on all. And at the lowest cost to all. Simplicity will make things much more enjoyable for all involved. I also hope it will encourage others to become involved. Since this will set a precedent for future reunions, I am not giving up. I will have a park by this Friday. Either that or I will rethink the whole approach. I am open for ideas as I am calling different city's parks departments. Please just leave a comment after this blog entry or send me an email. I am also on facebook.

I work really well under pressure so this will be an awesome reunion. Make sure you're spreading the word.

-Joe