Committees

Our reunions are complicated enough now that we must assign a committee each year to research, plan and be in charge of the reunion. Although formal committees were not formed until sometime in the early 80's, we did have assignments from the very beginning. We had a very neatly typed assignment sheet consisting of one couple being in charge of the most important item-----FOOD! Of course they did not do all of the cooking but asked each couple to bring and prepare something. Larry was in charge of First Aid, Dennis (the cop) was assigned policing of the grounds, Marvin was in charge of the children's behavior, Janet and Dean were in charge of safety, especially around and in the lake. Judy and Darrell were the program chairpersons, Mom and Pop were in charge of devotions and the WHIPPING POST, David and Greg were in charge of babysitting and daytime activities and sports. Paul was in charge of camp security and defense against INDIAN ATTACK. Some of these assignments were funny but the food and church assignments were carried out to the letter. Now we get to the formal selections of committees. Our family chose a third generation person, Todd, to be in charge of having meetings to set up each year's reunion committee. The committees generally consist of two or three couples who must decide a number of things. 1. Where they want to hold the reunion, including what kind of accommodations are available. 2. When the date will be. 3. When each activity will be held and where. 4. What kind of activities are available in the surrounding area and to obtain information about them. 5. Deciding who will have each night's dinner. 6. Finding a nearby golf course and planning the tournament. 7. Planning the church service. 8. Setting the date for the tea party and tailgate party. 9. Providing a room or other space for game night and other get togethers. The committee has complete control over where the reunion will be held and get to research and find just the spot they think will be best.

Planning a reunion requires that a lot of thought go into it because it is sometimes difficult to find suitable accommodations, especially during the long reunions, since several families will likely be sharing them. There must be a meeting room or an especially large cabin that can host our evening meetings and church service. State Resort Parks often work out the best because they usually have cabins to rent, sometimes very large ones, and often have a meeting room in their main lodges that can be used for other things. Committees always try to pick out the best places they can and indeed many of our reunions have been in excellent places.

Each of the nine items listed above are extremely important when planning a reunion, so we would like to explain further what each entails.
Item number one concerns researching and finding a reunion spot. Researching the reunion can be so much fun! The committee can go to different locations and check out the accommodations, and several times the committees would get to stay free of charge or at a discounted rate by stating that they were researching that spot for a large reunion the next year. Our family needs a location that can accommodate anywhere from 50 to 100 people. And with that, we need to have places large enough for two or more families to share a cabin, cottage, etc., in order to make the reunions more affordable. We also have to consider whether there are any handicapped facilities, nearby golf courses, nearby attractions, a meeting room or conference room, and a swimming pool for the kids. The cabins need to be in close proximity to each other, preferably, because we do a lot of walking back and forth visiting and cooking. We have stayed in a lot of state resort parks and they are usually very busy and book up fast, so we need to plan usually almost a year in advance.
Item number two concerns picking the date for the reunion. We have to consider that many of our family members have children, so most of the time we have our reunions in the summer. Even further, we generally have them in late July because that is when most of the younger kids are through with baseball. We also have worked around family weddings before and planned short reunions in conjunction with a wedding to save family members from making more than one trip from out of town.
Items three and four concern planning specific activities. We always have our own special internal activities that consist of church, a tea party for the little girls, a tailgate party for the little boys, golf tournament, baseball game, poker and bunko night, and usually a game night and awards. Outside activities include shopping, local attractions which can include museums, rafting, biking, fishing, hiking, mansions to tour, wineries, and so on.
Item number five concerns planning each night's dinner. The committee will draw up groups of couples, usually three or four, who are responsible for one night's dinner. Typically, the reunion committee will host the first night's dinner, often because they get there early and are ready to welcome the rest of the family. Each dinner group is responsible for the entire dinner, from shopping, buying, preparing, serving, and clean up. They usually buy paper goods to serve on, and most of the time the cabins have pots and pans and serving utensils. They also provide some drinks, including ice tea, lemonade, and coffee. Anything else is bring your own! Once your duty is done, then you are free for the rest of the week-you just show up each night and eat! We have some certain people that always want to fix the same thing at each reunion and have it down to a science, and is NOT very happy if someone else claims that particular menu before they get to it. We have had everything from salad with grilled chicken, to tacos, to chili, to steak, to hamburgers and spaghetti. Everything is always very delicious and we all make big pigs of ourselves. Truly, this method makes it very affordable for everyone, because you don't have to worry about feeding your family the whole week.
Item seven was about planning the golf tournament and we will take this subject up in a different post.
Item eight is planning the church service. We have had many different styles of services, from a very simple all music and prayer service, to all out music, sermon, and scripture readings. We have also gone to a local church for their services. We always try to include some type of memorial for our lost loved ones, to keep their memories alive with us. The children are usually included either in a reading, or sometimes they will sing a special song for the group. The reunion committee is usually in charge of the service, but they can ask other members for help with certain parts like making a special prayer, or doing a short sermon, or helping with the music.
Item nine is about having a meeting room or conference room to have church or game night/award night, etc. We need a room that is capable of holding all of us together and usually the cabins just aren't large enough for this. We will even pay extra sometimes to book the room and just split the cost or pay for it out of our family slush fund.
These are just the basics of our reunions. There are always some special things that happen at some of the reunions. We have had birthday parties, anniversary parties, a renewal of wedding vows, and an actual real wedding. We are always ready and able to include these special events as they make our reunions even more memorable.
The reunion committees start very early with their planning and usually send out several letters during the year to keep everyone posted on their plans. A final letter and schedule is sent out just beforehand so that everyone knows what's in the works.

Gearheart Baseball Games

Shortly after we started having reunions we began what we lovingly call our "Gearheart Rules" baseball games. At each reunion, anyone who wants to participate can play the game, even down to very small children. The rules of the game go like this. Every child gets a hit. No matter how long someone must pitch to them, they stand there until they get a hit. Sometimes, with the smallest children, an adult will help them along, but they still get to hit the ball and run to first base. The second rule is that no matter how good the adult player, he or she must mis-catch, mis-throw, mis-slide, etc., so that the children get to go all the way around the bases and score a run. This makes for some hilarious games, with the adults falling down, missing the ball, running backwards and other stunts, in order to make sure that the kids get to tag the bases. When the kids get to the age where they are growing up and participating in regular ball games and getting pretty good at it, then the rules are called off and they are treated pretty much as adults. The adults must use the opposite batting arm when it is their turn but run the bases normally. We usually have four or five outfielders. Uncle Larry gets to do the pitching on one team because he participated in competetive fast-pitch baseball for many years. He's really very good at it, and seems to be able to tailor his pitches exactly to the needs of each child. The other team selects a pitcher among themselves and the game is on. We have had a few new members of the family that are somewhat "competetive" in nature, shall we say, and they seem to have some difficulty adjusting to the "Gearheart Rules". Eventually, though, they catch on and seem to enjoy seeing the little ones run the bases and score a run as much as the wildly cheering throng on the sidelines. Many a happy hour has been spent yelling for the kids as they furiously run the bases and come home to score. I'm not sure that anyone remembers the final scores in the game, if any, but they must be something like 75 to 70, because there are lots and lots of baserunners.
This event is planned for and scheduled into the long reunions, especially. We try to use a local field close to where we are staying, if available. If there are none, then a wide open space in a park will substitute just fine. We don't have a trophy for this event because we would have to buy too many of them, but a great time is still had by all.

Church Services

From our very first reunion, our family has always had a simple church service sometime during the gathering. Attendance was required. The patriarch of our family led the service, and he always included the importance of a loving family and staying together as a close knit unit. Although he led the service, other members of the family led the singing, read a scripture, asked for thoughts or concerns, always ended in prayer and was always an uplifting, calming experience after such a hectic busy weekend. We always included the children, either by having them perform a song, or with someone reading a story to them at the front of the room. The children always seem to be happy to be included and are enthralled by the stories. Sometimes they were read a biblical type story, but one member of the family wrote a special story about our family and our roots and they are absolutely rapt as they listen to the story of how our "Pop" and "Mom" met and fell in love and had a family. Some members of our family are more musically inclined than others (to say the least) and we always seem to impose on them to help us with the music. We have had many a wonderful hour listening to them play or sing and just can't seem to get enough. After our "Pop" and "Mom" went to heaven, other members of the family stepped up to the plate to continue our traditions and would help with the different parts of the service. Now days, we include a memorial section within the regular service to remember and honor those of our family who are already in heaven. Many of the younger generation didn't get to know "Pop" and "Mom" and some of the others who are gone, and this is a good way to pass on the history of our family and connect them with their past. The church service is mandatory, but it need not take up a large chunk of time or effort. It just seems to come together each year and is a wonderful way to end our reunions.

Where We've Been

Here's a list of where we have had family reunions so far:



1972 Jarbalo, KS

1974 Jarbalo, KS

1975 Jarbalo, KS

1976 Pipestem State Park, WV

1977 Jarbalo, KS

1978 Jenny Wiley State Park, KY

1979 Presbyterian Retreat, Parkville, MO

1980 Long Beach Island, NJ

1981 Tall Oaks Camp, Linwood, KS

1982 Camp Chippewa, Ottawa, KS

1983 Pennyrile State Park, KY

1984 Shang-ri-la Resort, Grand Lake of the Cherokees, Afton, OK

1985 Long Beach Island, NJ

1986 Salina, KS

1987 Twin Falls State Park, WV

1988 Lake of the Ozarks, MO

1989 Winter Park, CO

1990 Kansas City (combined with wedding celebration)

1991 Elms Resort, Excelsior Springs, MO

1992 Hannibal, MO

1993 Kansas City (combined with wedding celebration)

1994 Marland Mansion, Ponca City, OK

1995 Branson, MO

1996 Myrtle Beach, SC

1997 St. Louis, MO

1998 Sturgeon Bay, WI

1999 Omaha, NE

2000 The Barn, Valley Falls, KS

2001 Custer State Park, SD

2002 Kansas City (combined with wedding celebration)

2003 Hidden Mountain Resort, Gatlinburg, TN

2004 Spider Creek Resort, Eureka Springs, AR

2005 Canaan Valley State Park, WV

2006 Lied Lodge, NE

2007 Punderson State Park, OH

The Next Step

For three years our family had our long-weekend reunions at the nudist colony (clothing mandatory), then the family decided it was time to go back to our roots in West Virginia. In 1976 Uncle Paul found the Pipestem State Park Resort. It was a very nice resort type facility with rental cabins, which we all shared. Amazingly, there were no mice included in the cabins. To keep the costs down, two or three families could share a cabin. Additionally, this was the first year that we decided to appoint dinner groups for each night. Several couples would be in charge of one night's dinner and could select the menu, buy the groceries and cook. That way, you only had to cook one night and could just show up for dinner the rest of the time. This is a great system that we have continued to use each time we have a week long reunion. Paul found tourist type attractions close by that we could enjoy. There was shopping, swimming, a Gearheart Rules baseball game (we'll tell you more about that later), lots of other games, and plenty of get together time. We made sure that during the week long reunions that everyone had things to do during the day, but we always had dinner together in the evenings.
In 1977 we backslid right into the nudist colony once again for a long weekend reunion. Thankfully, that was the last time that we went there for a reunion. By that time, most of us had gotten smart and learned to bring campers, RV's, and Vans to sleep in. But the camp did offer a large dining hall where we could all be together for meals and also offered a lot of outdoor activities like fishing, swimming, badminton, horseshoes and baseball.
We were sad to leave the nudist colony, but we knew that our family was growing and wanting to experience new places and to take a step up in our accommodations. We thought that this would be a great opportunity for our kids to travel the country and experience new things.

How We Started

In 1972, our Uncle Paul decided our family needed to have an annual reunion since our family was growing by leaps and bounds. We came from a coal mining family in the hills of West Virginia to the very flat Kansas wheat fields. We were starting to get spread out across the country and Uncle Paul felt that we needed a short period of time each year where we could get away from the hustle and bustle of home, phones, bills, etc. and reconnect as a family. He searched around, and found what was formerly a nudist colony and was currently being used sometimes as a church camp. He managed to reserve the camp for us for a long weekend and began what became an annual tradition that remains to this day. Although things have changed tremendously since those days, we still plan an annual reunion and we have added many new traditions to our reunions.
We don't want you to think that our reunions today are anywhere near what they were in 1972, but we would like to relate some of the funny (not so funny then) things that happened at that original nudist colony. Let us begin by saying that the accomodations were rustic, to say the least. The camp had little one room cabins with bunk beds and one bathroom per cabin. Each cabin had 4 bunk beds, so eight people could theoretically sleep in each cabin. The bathroom was very rough and didn't have a bathtub, only a shower (if you could call it that). The cabins were along a dirt road and in a wooded area. So, during the night, when the men were out gigging for frogs, the women were trying to sleep while hearing what seemed like thousands of mice in the walls. The women sat up all night and played cards and swore at the men, while trying to be brave about staying in a room FULL of mice, and who-knew-what- else. The next night, grouchy as we were, the women proceeded to take their blankets and pillows and marched to the dining hall where we all slept on top of the mess hall tables. What a fun time that was!
Actually, we did have a good time, except for never sleeping the whole weekend. That first year or two we played games, fished, swam in the pond, had lots of good food, and a nice church service. The church service became one of our very first traditions and the patriarch of the family conducted the service up until his death in 1980.
From 1972 to 2007 we have upheld our Uncle Paul's wishes to have a reunion every year, somewhere, sometime without fail. And even though our Uncle Paul is no longer with us, we know he would be proud because we are carrying on a great family connection and have instilled the reunion idea in our children and their children. We have an ever growing family of 100+ and are motoring on down the road with our continuing reunion plans.
Since starting at the nudist colony, we have now visited 14 states, many of them more than one time. We have been to beaches, mountains, up north, down south, east and west. We have a lot more places we'd like to see and hope to see them all. Some reunions were long weekends. Some were week long events. Financing the reunions is tough for some families, so we always try to pick places where two or more families can share the cost of the accomodations, which helps considerably to make them more affordable. Planning reunions became easier when we decided to have a meeting to chose committees each year. Each year, that committee was in charge of choosing the site and planning the events and activities, always keeping our traditions in place.
We will have lots more to come. We want to share how we plan our reunions, from picking a committee, to some of the traditional things that we always do at each reunion, the research involved, scheduling events, tourist attractions, deadlines, and many, many other helpful things. We hope that something in our site may help you when you are considering planning a reunion.