Wow!

Thank you to everyone who came together to make Mr. Loyd's retirement party/sing-along/class reunion a great success. What an amazing turnout! It was wonderful reconnecting with old friends, perusing table after table showcasing the classic elements of Mr. Loyd's class, and simply celebrating a much-deserving man. (Click here to see pictures and a couple of videos from the party.)

If you attended and would like to share pictures you took, I'm sure Dad would love to see them! They can be emailed to him at kloyd1953@embarqmail.com, or you could put them on a CD or print them out and mail them to him at 4176 Murdocksville Road, West End, NC 27376.

Thanks again to all of you!

Memories

Hey everyone,

Party down time is drawing closer!! We are very excited about the party this Friday. We wanted to thank everyone who has emailed notes to us for dad. We will hopefully be reading those at the party, but definitely we will be giving them to him. If you know that you can't make the party, we ask politely - okay, we beg - that you email us or comment here with a personal note or favorite memory that we can share with dad. He would love to see or hear from every single student of his. It doesn't have to be long or eloquent, just something to let him know you remember him.

Don't forget that if you have any questions you can feel free to get in touch with us anytime!

Update

Hey everyone! We had our final (maybe?) planning meeting yesterday for Mr. Loyd's retirement party. We wanted to tell you a little about what to expect at the party.

It is going to be semi-organized. We want to give people time to talk to each other, talk to Mr. Loyd, tell memories from his class, look at the exhibits (yes, the SFL cafetorium will be a pure Loyd museum!!), and walk the SFL campus. But we do have certain things that we definitely want to happen, such as a short speech from Mr. Loyd, memories from people who know him, and a nature walk. You are welcome to walk the Nature Trail at any point while you are there, but at the very end we do intend to have a planned walk with Mr. Loyd, if it is plausible. In other words, bring your walking shoes!

So that you who read this blog will have a heads up, we do plan on giving you all a chance to speak your piece! When you first enter the cafetorium, you will have the opportunity to write a personal note to Mr. Loyd (no one except for him will read it), or you can write a note that someone else will read to him from the stage, which means everyone else there will hear it. If you prefer to speak to him from the stage yourself, you will have that opportunity as well. We want Mr. Loyd to hear your memories, but we understand that many people are not comfortable speaking in front of a crowd! Therefore, we are trying to give you as many options as possible for getting your memories heard.

We also realized that probably many of you have not been to Farm Life in many years, and may not have directions! I am attempting to add a map in order to get you familiar at least a little bit with the area. If you need directions, please let us know and we will help you get there! Or call the school at (910) 949-2501 and I'm sure they can guide you in.



View Larger Map

Please, please, feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions. We are getting so excited about the party, and so is Mr. Loyd! He can't wait to see everyone and wants to talk to every person individually! We really think the memories will be overwhelming once you walk through the "exhibits" and see humor magazines, snakes, science experiments, etc! We can't wait to see all of you!

Check out SFL's marquee!!

Check this out if you're in the area of Farm Life!!

Field trip

Former students might enjoy these pictures and videos from Mr. Loyd's final class trip to the House in the Horseshoe and the old schoolhouse:

http://jenndare.blogspot.com/2008/04/time-travel.html

Word of mouth!

We are getting some great response from our hard work, which is pretty much cold calling people, and messaging random people on Facebook. But we are worried that we are going to miss tons of people, especially the ones who don't have internet access.

That's where YOU come in. Word of mouth is a fantastic, easy way to advertise. When you talk to someone that you know was in Mr. Loyd's class, please tell them about the party! If you can't remember the day and times, get their phone number or email address and tell them you'll call them about it. We don't want anyone to miss out on this party!

We are getting more excited as more people RSVP!!

Update!

We had a great planning meeting last week and are so excited about the retirement party! Not as excited as Dad is, though. He has a notebook full of ideas for the party and former students he wants to be sure to get in touch with. Mom says it's practically all he talks about.

Dad has boxes upon boxes upon boxes of student papers and he plans to display them at the party. Some of the more entertaining prospects include students' "Mr. Loyd's Class Reunion" stories, "Autobiography" stories and the annual class humor magazines. Many of these will be laid out at the party for students to peruse.

Other classic elements of Mr. Loyd's class will also be represented. He wants to read a short Jack Tale. He wants to have a short sing-along. He wants to have an area for string tricks. And he wants to conclude with a tour of the Nature Trail for anyone who's interested. He's even hoping to catch a snake in honor of the event.