Virtual Reunion

EDUCATION WEEK MAGAZINE -- July 8, 1998

When some of Fred Light's fellow members of the class of 1973 at Bettendorf High School in Iowa asked him to help track down classmates for a 25th-year reunion, Mr. Light volunteered to create a World Wide Web site.

"They always have a problem finding people," he said. "I suggested, 'Put together a Web site and have them find you.'"

Mr. Light, who runs a roommate service and designs Web pages in Boston, built quite an elaborate one. He scanned in photos of classmates and posted a list of class members the reunion committee was unable to locate. As information flowed in through e-mail, he added biographies.

Although the reunion is scheduled for July 24 and 25, many of the 300-some classmates have already used the Web page to set up carpools from their states to the reunion.

Even strangers have taken an interest. Banyan Productions, a Philadelphia-based company, is asking for class members to share their stories and be filmed for a documentary on reunions to be shown on the Learning Channel. The Web site is at http://www.bhsclassof73.com