4th AFS Girls School Reunion: Mission Accomplished, Onward & Upward!

The 4th AFS Girls School Reunion took place last Sunday, and I had a blast -- perhaps because I suddenly realized that all the work to make that happen is now basically done...So here indeed is a good story.

In June 2015 I had come to Greece for a 6-week visit, including my first to Northern Greece in over 30 years. I had worked at the AFS/American Farm School in Thessaloniki from 1968 to 1978, bonding especially with the students of the Girls School Dept. (home economics/handicrafts) and their families. The AFS was then a school solely for kids from villages, and visiting the students in their villages was my favorite thing to do during holidays and summer months.

There being no current information at the School in 2015 as to the whereabouts of the women grads, I set out with 2 of them to find the rest. What would they think, would they even remember me? By the time I left, I had visited and/or spoken with 51 of those women. We were all simply overwhelmed with joy at the reconnection -- especially since the Girls School Dept. had been closed in 1978. Wow!

So with the invaluable help of grads already located, I continued to look for all of them -- and thus also initiated my ongoing 3-month/twice-a-year stints in Greece.  In April 2016 we had the first reunion; 120 women attended a veritable festival of reconnection.  Soon thereafter I moved from Thessaloniki to Naousa, a Macedonian city of about 23,000 people one hour NW of Thessaloniki where my father was born and where I still live when in Greece...and where I have lived through a good chunk of the financial crisis.


Over time we have located every one of the 232 women who graduated from the AFS Girls School Dept. (1967-1978), plus others who attended for only one year -- some found after extensive "investigations" (for lack of a better word). Most still live in their Northern Greece villages or have moved to Thessaloniki. 17 are unfortunately deceased. A handful of those who went to Germany to work still live there. 7 live in the US/Canada. Over 50 are on Facebook and members of a secret page where they share info and news. All have been provided with a list of their classmates with current addresses and telephone numbers.

We also connected with the current occupants of what was the Girls School campus, the Asylo Paidiou (a not-for-profit school for 370 kids from pre-school to 6th grade) -- asking to come in during a Sunday when the school was closed to have a picnic on our old stomping grounds.  Picnic? They rolled out the red carpet along with all the tables from the dining room. What great people!

 

We have now had 3 reunions there, all volunteer-driven...adding to our lists women who attended the original Quaker-run iteration of the Girls School (1945-1967). When they heard about our reunions, they just showed up, and we have been blessed with the presence of women who graduated from the School in 1949-50-51...plus visits by 3 of the younger women now living in the USA. Double wow!

Yes, this is a very good story. The grads of the AFS Girls School Dept. -- who 4 years ago were mostly out-of-touch with each other -- are now in constant contact by phone, at coffee klatches/ tsipouro parties and even field trips. Our Travel Team has gone to Cyprus -- where we met up with AFS guy grads/another amazing get-together -- and will soon be going to Madrid. Triple wow!

The Girls School grads themselves are now charged with organizing a 5th reunion. Meanwhile, I can happily say, "Mission accomplished, onward & upward!"