Steph Armstrong
Staff Reporter
Barry’s Bay — On Tuesday Oct 11., after more than 50 years, past graduates of St. John Bosco (Barry’s Bay) and St. Mary’s (Wilno) schools gathered at the Balmoral Hotel for a chance to meet up with old friends not seen in many years, reflect on their own lives over that time and reminisce about those simpler days spent growing and learning together.
When asked why they had decided to arrange the event, organizer Patricia Cybulski said, “Some of us went to school together in grade school; others we met in high school. I have a friend in Calgary, and we’ve gone to school together right from grade one and she used to come down before COVID. I said to her, ‘next time you come we should do this’, so I planned it this year because we’re all turning 65 and I thought it would be nice to see as many people as we could. I thought it would be a good idea to meet up, so I told some friends, and they told their friends and so on … I was very happy to see people I haven’t seen since high school; that’s like 40-some years ago.”
And come they did! Some from places as close to home as Barry’s Bay, Whitney, Wilno, Arnprior, Pembroke, Palmer Rapids, Renfrew and Combermere; others came from as far afield as Ottawa and Grimsby, a picturesque community just west of Hamilton.
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