Let's Get It Started!
Note: As promised here is the website for the family reunion. Please feel free to post your comments, concerns and ideas by clicking the "comments" link below. I've posted the initial email blast for those who didn't see it.
Hi all,
Those of us who attended Len Chenault's funeral last Friday experienced a plethora of emotions. Naturally we were saddened by the passing of a family patriarch--one who had been a very prominent figure in my own formative years--but we were also overjoyed to be together once again. Some of us hadn't seen each other in more than 20 years. It was such a tremendous blessing to reconnect that it was immediately decided that we should reunite the family--and this means all of the different branches on the tree--in the very near future.
It was suggested by Steve "Bro" Bell and Poppy Kilgour--who did a wonderful job officiating Lenny's homegoing service--that we perhaps schedule a reunion around the memorial charity golf tournament held for Sylvia Brown Chenault, the mother of Pam, Eddie and Darryn Chenault, who passed last year. The tourney is held the first weekend in May. Although no official committee has yet been formed, I was asked to send out this email blast to gage interest in the reunion and get some feedback on the proposed date.
To make this happen we're going to need assistance from everyone. Those of us over 50 do realize that there is an entire generation of younger cousins who don't know each other. I've hooked up some of you via Facebook, but this is an opportunity for you to really get to know each other. For example, Courtney Kilgour and Carli Clay just recently graduated from college with communications degrees. They should be networking. Mary Bell is about to move to D.C., a city that her cousin Kim Dixon lives in. They should be comparing notes on housing. Pepe Clay and Poppy Kilgour are both pastors, so there has to be some common bonds there.
Plus, there are a lot of new people marrying into the family and babies being born!
It's important that we establish and rekindle bonds while we are still here. As a family we have lost so many of our elders in the past 10 years and some of us weren't able to say goodbye to them. Worse, some didn't even know who they were. While some of you still have beef with folks over things that happened during the Nixon administration, it is time, as Rev. Kilgour said at Lenny's service, to let that go. Nothing is more important than family. We are strong, talented and come from a long line of folks who took the hits for us so that we can soar. We dishonor their memory by not seeking to resolve our issues.
It's time to honor them.
As I mentioned there is no official committee yet, but several people have offered to serve. Gary Dixon has volunteered his services as treasurer and I have accepted the task of keeping everyone connected virtually. Also, Steve Bell and Stephanie Pipes Clay have offered to help coordinate this effort with Darryn Chenault. And although she's not been officially asked, I'm hoping that Joann Pipes, who has been archiving the family history for decades, will serve in that same capacity for the reunion. She mentioned to me last week that she needs photos--particularly shots of some of our deceased members--in their younger days. If you have some, please reach out to her at Jap227@msn.com. Kim Dixon, who is a professional archivist at the Smithsonian, was among the first in her generation to volunteer to help out.
If you have a special skill or area of interest, please let me know and we'll put you to work. We have less than a year to pull this together and all of us are hoping that it will be an affair to remember.
What I need from all of you now is help rounding up people who aren't included in this initial blast. I'm hoping that Stephanie and Joann can help mobilize the Green clan, and that Pam and Darryn Chenault can help provide names of anyone missing from that branch of the family. Hopefully, we won't lose anyone else before we meet again, but please forward any news on graduations, marriages, births, deaths and significant accomplishments. If Johnny got an "A" in anatomy, we wanna know!
In addition to the golf tourney, which is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 1, it has been suggested that we have:
- a Sunday church service
- an interactive tribute to deceased family members
- a Saturday cookout
- a Friday meet-and-greet
- an organized activity for the kids (like a talent show or amusement park visit
- establishing a scholarship fund for college students
Whew! OK, I think that's it for now. Again, please email me with your comments and thoughts and I'll share them with the committee. If you have no interest in receiving these emails, just write "please remove" in the subject line.
Until we meet again let's keep moving upward and onward my peeps.
Cheers,
Myra "Miki" Turner
