The Arrival
Cash and name tags
Handing out the Class of 79 Books
The Presentations - The Big Cheque!
The Presentations - Donation Pins
Our Class of 79 has had a very stellar grassroots fundraising campaign raising over $275,000 for far and more impressively from more than 85 different Classmates. The RMC Alumni Association reviews the donations annually and when someone surpasses a certain threshold they recognize those contributions by mailing Memorial Arch pins to each of the individuals. Coming from a time when some Canada Decorations were mailed to recipients, we thought the Old Brigade Reunion Weekend would present a golden opportunity to publicly recognize guys from our Class who had passed those thresholds and not yet been mailed their pins (Pewter - $1,000 - $9,999 and Silver - $10,000 - $99,999). Since the vast majority of the guys previously qualified, we double-checked with the Alumni Association and these were seven guys who had not yet received their pins.
The Presentations - The Class of 79 Book
The Presentations - Recognizing our Two Chiefs of Defence Staff and getting (Finally) a Photo of Them Together wearing Jerseys from Their Favourite Teams!
Presentations - Jersey Night - Farley
Tom Lawson mentioned quite awhile ago that after having been Cmdt at RMC he understood that most Classes had a small core group of guys who pretty much looked after their Class. Rich Gimblett held things together as Class Secretary for 45 years, ever since graduation, with periodic help from guys like John Carr who produced the 10th Anniversary Booklet. Rich’s job was greatly facilitated in the early 2000s when Dwight Davies set up a group contact list with Yahoo Groups and then later with Groups.IO. Larry Richardson was also the long term rep for the UTPMs and provided feedback on numerous issues. Then, after Farley was posted to CDA HQ on the RMC peninsula, he and Brenda first hosted the 35th anniversary luncheon at their place near Gananoque and then during the lead up to the 40th Anniversary, Farley came on board creating the Class of 79 website with the help of his son-in-law Jay Wood. After that, he had his hands in many different Class-related activities, including maintaining the Nominal Roll; reconciling the Class Funds; helping Dwight run the Yahoo and then TDV79ers eGroup; setting up and managing the Class of 79 Fund along with Pete Avis as “cheerleader”; working with Pete and Rich to develop and follow up on ideas for a Class project; helping Pete and Tom Keogh create ideas for a Class book following which Terry Leversedge agreed to use his publishing company to produce the Class Book; helping Pete edit the Class Book, after Pete did an amazing job individually tracking down a significant number of current photos for the Then and Now section; organizing the production of the name tags after a suggestion from Nelson Cross; and helping Pete and Rich organize the Old Brigade Reunion weekend. Note that Pete also agreed to become the Old Brigade Adjutant, so in addition to the luncheon at the Shire he also helped organize not only the Arch parade but also the Old Brigade Dinner, and in the process attending numerous meetings with RMC and RMC AA staff.