Our First Family Reunion - Counting The Days

The first Fairbairn Family Reunion is less than a month away, on August 8th & 9th. My cousin and I are organizing the two-day affair to be held in Amherstburg at the Jellystone Campground. This is my first experience at organizing a family reunion so we'll see how it goes. My cousin lives in British Columbia, so we have been keeping in touch through Facebook, Fairbairn Family Reunion group on Facebook, the reunion website, Twitter, emails and since we switched to cable for our phone, I can call her anytime, at no cost.

I am going to be making shareable CDs with my Rootsmagic4 program. I was going to make printed copies of a family book, but since I already have the program, I think family members would have fun playing around with all the features of Rootsmagic4,, and if they want a book, they can design and print one up themselves. The shareable CD is the full program, but it is not editable. There is only one database. There will be a lot of old family photos to be scanned to CDs and photos of the reunion activities and group photos that I will be putting on CDs as well. It will keep me busy, since I won't be participating in any activities, I will be recovering from major surgery. I am going to make a giant wall chart to be filled in at the reunion by the family members also. We put a form on the website for updating family information too.

The RSVPs and t-shirt orders are coming in steadily, and there will be a quilt raffle at the end of the reunion. We are taking orders for t-shirts and raffle tickets for the quilts on the reunion website, through Paypal, or by mail. My cousin and I decided that even those family members who are unable to attend the reunion, should be able to participate in the quilt raffle, t-shirts and CDs, so we are requesting a shipping address with the orders.

We are planning a scavenger hunt of a different sort, so the little ones can play too. Insteead of a list of items to find, the participants have to find any item that starts with the letters that make up the words FAIRBAIRN FAMILY REUNION.

We are also going to have a softball tournament, weather permitting, and since I have tons of fabric, I am sewing team "shirts", actually more like halter tops, one size fits all, in two different colours.

My cousin reserved the group campsite for the reunion, and there will be a tent set up where I will be scanning and making CDs. I would like to hold some family interviews there too. I'm looking forward to it, and I'll let you know how it turns out in a month. If this one is successful, I might just organize a family reunion with my dad's family!