Jon and Pam Zipfel Kirkwood BHS '64

Jon and Pam Kirkwood have a wonderful email they send out which gives updated news on their classmates as well as other grads too. I asked Pam if she would tell us about "The Loop" and send a few pics which she did! Thanks so much, Pam and Jon!!



























Hi Cathy...

That would be fun to appear on your Blog...Thank you so much...

As far as other links...I think you have most of them that I know of, already...Don Ray's blog, you have...Do you have Stan Lynch's Burbank Blog? or Wes Clark's blog about growing up in Burbank in the 50's "Avocado Memories"?

I was thinking too, that maybe you might want to mention the "Senior Bulldog Foundation" (if you haven't already). It is an alumni group (non profit) that meets on the first Monday of every month (unless it is a holiday, then it is the second Monday) at the Burbank Elks Lodge located at 2232 N. Hollywood Way in Burbank. It is an informal luncheon gathering...Lunch is $12 and the time is 11AM...Any BHS grad from any year is welcome. Once a year, the Senior Bulldogs give out several $1,000 scholarships to qualified BHS Seniors who are graduating and going on to college. These funds are collected strictly through donations...We hold no fund raisers.

The Senior Bulldogs also send out a monthly newsletter. Anyone interested in receiving the newsletter should contact Herb Vincent chvincent1@aol.com and provide their name (for girls he needs maiden and married name), mailing address, phone number, email address and the year you graduated.

Below, I have written a little about how the "Loop" started...

The "Loop" began in about 2003, when our BHS Class of '64 Reunion Committee was starting to plan our 40th Reunion. Some classmates wanted to hold it at the Queen Mary and have a rather "fancy" affair...Others of us preferred to have a more "casual" party at a Burbank venue. Having been from the same class of '64, Jon and I knew lots of classmates and we had email addresses for many of them. When writing them, we mentioned the dilemma about where we were going to hold the Reunion...A few sent back their preferences..We decided to poll everyone we could contact by email. Before we knew it, we had gathered quite a number of email addresses from our class, as others would send us contacts for people they had kept in touch with...We began to send out frequent messages to everyone, keeping them all abreast of how the Reunion Plans were progressing...Our mailing list grew and grew...

The "Loop" started to become a wonderful way to find missing classmates and to share the excitement leading up to our "Big Event". As it turned out, we had the biggest and best Reunion ever, with around 300 attending...Everyone seemed to appreciate the way the "Loop" had brought our class closer together...It was a more personal way to include people, especially those who had NEVER attended a Reunion and were apprehensive and needed re-assurance...Many asked if we were going to continue it...and so, we have...

Over a period of time, the "Loop" kind of "morphed" into what it is today...We opened it up to all the classes and we have become a huge "family". To date, we have nearly 500 classmates "Looping" with us...even a few from Burroughs! We share memories, nostalgia, photos, big events like the births of grandchildren, family weddings, retirements...We try to be a support group for those who are ill or who have suffered losses. We also try to keep everyone up on what is happening in "Loopland" a.k.a. Burbank and we have helped to "re-connect' many old friends who had lost each other over the years...

Hopefully, the "Loop" is a place our friends and classmates can go once a week or so, no matter where in the world they are... and feel like they are back home, where they grew up...

One other good thing that has resulted from all of this is that most all of the folks who "head up" the various BHS Class Reunions from each graduating class, are now in touch with each other...We help each other locate missing people and share information...Chances are, if anyone is looking for someone, between all of us, we usually can find the person.

If you are not already "Looping" with us and would like to... Just email us at pamkirkwood@yahoo.com We need to know your name (for girls, we need maiden name and married name), the year you graduated and your email address...There is no charge for this.

Thanks for the chance to tell your bloggers about our "Loop", Cathy...You are doing a FABULOUS job in helping to connect our very "special" group of BHS Classmates...

Pam Zipfel Kirkwood BHS '64 and Jon Kirkwood BHS '64