Co-chairperson Bob Coates shown outside NBCHS. The Come Together NBCHS first decade reunion is now planned for July 30 to 31, 2021. (Submitted photo/Bob Coates) 

By Angela Brown

Halcyon days

NBCHS Come Together first decade reunion moved to next year

May 7, 2020 | 3:07 PM

For Patty Francescone who graduated North Battleford Comprehensive High School (NBCHS) in 1981, the days of her youth were a time for forming friendships and achieving new goals.

She will join hundreds of others who graduated from 1971 to 1981, the early years of the school, to celebrate the first decade reunion.

“North Battleford was a fabulous place to grow up – the sense of community, the people,” she said. “I’m looking forward to seeing some of my friends. I’ve kept in contact with a couple of them, but some of the friends you’ve kind of lost touch with it would be great to see.”

Francescone was active in sports in high school and held a number of records in North Battleford for track and field.

She enjoyed studying social studies the most, and engaging in sports activities in the gymnasium during a time she remembers fondly.

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Living in Alberta now, for Francescone coming back to North Battleford will be coming home for her.

The 10-year reunion event originally planned for this summer is now moving to July 30 to 31, 2021 in North Battleford instead, due to the province’s COVID-19 precautions in place.

“It was the wisest thing for us to do, to just push it off to next year,” Bob Coates, co-chairperson for the Come Together NBCHS committee, said.

The Come Together reunion originally scheduled for past alumni of NBCHS classes of 1971 to 1980 will now include 1981 alumni as well, given the new dates for the event.

Early bird registration has been extended to May 31, 2020 with details at eventbrite.com, under the NBCHS reunion event listing. Updates will be available via the event Facebook page.

The event will include a welcome reception for alumni, and meet and greet with former teachers and classmates at the Dekker Centre on the Friday of the reunion; then, on Saturday a tour of the school is planned; followed by afternoon class reunion gatherings at a local venue; and in the evening at the Western Development Museum a reception, dinner, live entertainment, and era-related activities and games; with Sunday left as an open day for people to get together with old friends and explore the Battlefords.

Coates said the organizing committee expects more than 400 people to attend. About 220 have registered so far.

Coates himself graduated from NBCHS in 1978. Times were different then, he said, life was simpler but at the same time there was always lots to do.

“I think it was a little less stressful perhaps,” he said. “I was kept so busy with my sports and music that I never felt there was a time to be bored. North Battleford was a wonderful community, a real going concern. It was thriving… with the malls and the growth, it was all very, very exciting for anyone who grew up in the ’60s and ’70s back in North Battleford, and we were very much a part of all of that.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW