Online Edition TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1999
(Reproduced from www.salemnews.com)
Click HERE to view the BOSTON GLOBE article about this site
Click here to return to the main Alumni Database Page
The Salem Evening News
Online Edition TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1999
By KELLY STEINMETZ
News staff
BEVERLY -- Ever wonder what happened to that kid who sat next to you in Algebra class, but dread the thought of attending the high school reunion?
Just turn on the computer and type in a Web address to access the Beverly High School data base.
Beverly High Class of 1986 graduate Karen Christensen created the new Web site as a way to keep in touch with old friends.
More than 200 Beverly High alumni have already left e-mail addresses and tidbits about their lives since leaving high school. Since July, there have been more than 1,200 "hits," the term used to record the number of visitors to the site.
"I was trying to keep in touch with an awful lot of people," said Christensen. "Over the years you find it gets harder and harder with the changes of address and people moving all over the world."
Christensen was among those who scattered after graduation, attending the University of Arizona, and never left that area. Christensen is raising two children, ages 2 and 8, in Tucson.
A software analyst with Sunquest Information Systems, a company that designs laboratory software for hospitals, Christensen began designing Web sites as a side business.
Christensen's company, Sunny Day Productions, has produced sites for "Liquid Bullet," a Mace alternative that is reported to be powerful enough to drop a 600-pound bear. They also built a string of Web sites to help connect remote Alaskan towns like Circle, population 86, to the outside world.
Those interested in buying Alaskan wares can order Athabascan slippers, earrings, gloves and marten caps from the sites.
The Beverly High School Web page provides links to Sunny Day Productions and also the online version of the Evening News.
Although Christensen hasn't made it to a class reunion yet, she still keeps in touch with a large group of high school friends.
So upon stumbling on a site designed to link people from high schools across the country, Christensen decided to start an alumni service specifically for Beverly High School as an easier way to keep in touch.
"Classmates.com is a nationwide site for high school alumni ... it's also very cold and impersonal. It's really just enter your name and e-mail address kind of thing,"
Beverlyhighalumni.com is smaller because it is only for Beverly High graduates.
Graduates from 1960 to 1998 have registered with the site. Although alumni who graduated before 1960 can register, none have so far.
The page is designed so visitors can click on the year they graduated to find updates on former classmates.
Judi Gentleman from the Class of '76 is married, has one daughter, two stepsons and a recent interest in scuba diving.
Antoinette Bell, the self-described "English girl" from the Class of '86 is living in the English countryside after spending her years following graduation in London. She is married to an Egyptian man and has a daughter.
And Nancy Hall from the Class of '84 stayed in Beverly to raise her three children.
To provide an update or find out how former classmates have fared, visit http://members.aol.com/bhsalumnus .
**Note - the above URL is no longer valid; this site moved to www.beverlyhighalumni.com in March, 2000.
Reprinted from the Boston Globe's Sunday Edition, 11/21/99
Cyber sites reunite high school alumni
By Kathy McCabe, Globe Correspondent, 11/21/99
SALEM - As a student at Salem High School in the mid-1970s, Phil Pelletier was rarely
spotted without a camera around his neck as he snapped pictures for the school yearbook,
''The Witch.''
Today, 22 years after he clicked his last candid, Pelletier is still keeping an eye on his
classmates. Only now his tool is the Internet, and his subjects are Salem High graduates
all over the world.
Pelletier is the creator of www.salemgrads.com, an interactive Web site that lets Salem
High graduates reunite on line at anytime and from anywhere, instead of just at the
traditional Thanksgiving Day football game.
''I think of it really as a living yearbook,'' said Pelletier, a member of the Class of
'77 who now lives in Georgetown. ''I really only manage the site. It's everything people
add and say on it that makes it really dynamic.''
The Salem site, which debuted last month and now includes 1,000 graduates spanning 66
class years, from 1933 to 1999, is one of only a few high school Web sites in the North
Weekly region that link alumni on line.
Although many area public high schools have Web sites that provide information about the
school and current activities, few contain pages for alumni relations, an on-line survey
showed.
In addition to Salem High, Beverly High School, Salem's longtime Thanksgiving Day rival,
also has an on-line database - http://members.aol.com/bhsalumnus - that was launched last
July by Karen Christensen, a 1986 Beverly High graduate who now lives in Tucson.
Masconoment Regional High School in Boxford, which also serves Topsfield and Middleton,
has a site - www.masconomet.org - that lists a few hundred names and e-mail addresses of
graduates. The site also posts information about class reunions. The page may soon be
expanded to include an interactive message board for graduates, a school official said.
''We want to put a bit more focus on it than simply a list of e-mail addresses,'' said
Joseph Czarnecki, a computer science teacher who manages the site. ''We hope to use the
alumni list to get in touch with students to let them know about a new school building
project we have here. It's a very helpful way to keep in touch.''
As interactive sites, both the Salem and Beverly Web pages encourage graduates to share
stories, photos, memories, renew friendships, and post information about class reunions,
scholarship fund-raising, and other alumni activities. Both sites, which are free to
alumni, are designed so that members can click on the year they graduated and find the
names of long-lost classmates.
''I try to keep in touch with friends from high school, but I'm living 3,000 miles now
from Beverly,'' said Christensen, a software analyst for a Tucson technology company.
''The Internet can be a real powerful tool for doing things, and bringing people together
is one of them.''
Pelletier, a Web master for a Boston health organization, also sees the Internet as a tool
to keep people connected. ''It is just an amazing way to spread information worldwide,''
he said, noting the site lists Salem High grads living in Japan, England, Arizona, and
Florida. ''People today don't think twice about moving away from a place. Years ago, that
really didn't happen. It was easier for people to stay in touch.''
The Internet does have commercial Web sites aimed at building school ties, such as
www.classmates.com and www.highschoolalumni.com, clearinghouses that let people register
their names and e-mail addresses under their community and state. The sites, however, do
not contain local information about a specific school or community.
''I thought those sites were cold and impersonal,'' said Christensen, a former editor of
The Ledger, the Beverly High School newspaper. ''I wanted a site that was geared more to
the community itself, not the entire country.''
''I didn't like the idea of people having to pay to find out what happened to someone they
went to school with 20 years ago,'' said Pelletier, who spent $25 to join
www.classmates.com to find e-mail addresses for Salem grads. ''I wanted something more
personal, and for people to feel the site was theirs.''
To encourage community pride, Pelletier included a place for people who did not attend
Salem High to sign on as ''guests'' on the site, as well as a place for faculty. A message
board is designed to get people chatting. Most recently, the board has been buzzing with
graduates talking about ways to get Jack Welch, chairman and chief executive of General
Electric Co. and a 1953 graduate of Salem High, to join the site.
Messages like ''Where are you, Jack Welch?'' and ''Come on down, Jack Welch'' have popped
up on the site. ''He's the head of one of the world's largest corporations, and he's a
Salem High grad. It would be a real tribute to Salem High if he joined the site,''
Pelletier said.
A spokesman for GE in Lynn said last week he would pass information about
www.salemgrads.com to Welch, who last year attended his 45th class reunion at Salem High.
On the Beverly High alumni Web page, Christensen tried to create hometown pride by
including old photos of Beverly, listing job openings at Beverly High, and touting the
alumni bulletin board. As of last week, the site had more than 500 members, representing
classes from 1927 to 1999.
''The response to the site has been very positive. I've heard from people that I lost
touch with 20 years ago,'' said Christensen, who moved to Arizona to attend college and
has not yet returned for a Beverly High reunion.
Christensen hopes to land some local sponsorship for the site so that it can be given its
own Web address and domain name. The site is currently posted on free space Christensen
gets from America Online.
Meanwhile, across the bridge in Salem (or a click away on the Internet), Pelletier already
has landed some local sponsors for www.salemgrads.com. PG&E Corp., owner of the Salem
Harbor Station, a regional power plant, paid $300 to become a one-year sponsor for the
site. Salem residents Beverlie McSwiggin and John Riley also sent Pelletier a $50
donation.
''We already support the yearbook, the band, the football team, and we saw this as another
good opportunity to support the school. There aren't that many big companies left in Salem
to do that,'' said Malia Griffin, a PG&E spokeswoman and a member of the SHS Class of
1977.
McSwiggin, who did not attend Salem High, signed onto the site as a guest. ''My heart was
always at Salem High,'' said McSwiggin, a graduate of the former St. James High School.
''My roots are in Salem. The site is better than a reunion. How many times at a reunion do
you say, `Let's keep in touch?' and then you walk away. With this, you really can stay in
touch.''
Globe correspondent Kris Eager assisted in the preparation of this report.
This story ran on page 01 of the Boston Globe's North Weekly on 11/21/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.