Web site, Damboree unite Boulder City alums

By Cassie Tomlin (contact)

Friday, July 4, 2008 | 5:37 p.m.

BCHSAlumni.com has been buzzing with posts this summer.

The social networking site saw a lot of hits near Independence Day, the typical reunion season for Boulder City High School graduates of the past.

Todd Whalen, a 1988 graduate, created the Web site two years ago in preparation for his 20-year reunion July 4 and 5.

Whalen, a web designer in Wilmington, N.C., said trying to connect on other social networking sites got costly and frustrating, and his forum assembled his old classmates more efficiently.

He said he moved away from Boulder City four years ago and had looked forward to “bringing back memories, getting to see how people have succeeded, rekindling old friendships.

“And it seemed like a excuse to have a party.”

At Broadbent Park July 4, after hopping off their Damboree parade float (where they yelled “88, Dominate!” as they wended through the parade route), Whalen and about 15 others from the graduating class, as well as their families, reminisced under a tent.

Stacy Parker, formerly Murn, of the Class of 1988, said she’d only stayed in touch with one classmate, Jessica Hartwig, formerly Hellenbrand, who was also present.

Parker, who lives in Henderson, and Hartwig, of Fresno, Calif., said they both left town immediately after graduation and, though neither attended their five- or 10-year reunions, they recognized all their classmates.

Across the park, at the Class of ’78 tent, Taci Philbrook, who now lives in Portland, Ore., and Kelly Sanderson, who lives in Reno, remembered Damborees of the past, moving school buildings in the fifth grade and racing their cars down Buchanan Boulevard.

The two had convinced other classmates, more reluctant to attend the reunion, to come by pointing out faces in yearbooks during the weeks before making the trip back.

Susan Hutton, formerly Beckett, another ’78 grad, said she left town in 1980 for Alaska and had been to two reunions previously.

Hutton said she’d caught up with her classmates before, but had extra incentive to come to the Damboree: In Alaska, the fireworks don’t happen until midnight, and even then it’s too light to see them as well as in Boulder City.

Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or cassie.tomlin@hbcpub.com.