Dear Classmates:

Our class President Derek asks me to write to appeal to all classmates.
 Although we already have probably another record number of about 55 classmates or more than 120 persons including family members participating, we definitely want more of you come to our Kong Se's 30th year reunion in Los Angeles.  

I can start by saying: it is absolutely NOT too late to decide to join the July 27th and 28th parties even now.  You have not missed any deadline and you don't have to pay any late fees.

I can understand.  Some of us have very busy and ever changing schedules.
 Six months ago, we couldn't decide.  Today, with less than a week to go, we should see better.  And it is only one weekend for just the two main parties.
 Those who find time to come now may feel that it is too late and last minute decisions may upset the organizers.  Well, it is NOT too late and we can always arrange to welcome your attendance.  If anything, it will be a pleasant surprise.  We like pleasant surprises.  Surprise us, please.
 Surprise us more, please.

I am not trying to make excuse for or belittle the efforts of our organizers.
 We are not actually trying to organize or create a successful party for a party's sake.  We can't possibly do so without your eager participation.  It is really the PEOPLE, ALL OF YOU, who will make the Party.  Classmates come first.  We would like to take this opportunity to profusely thank so many of you who have already signed up and urge the rest of you to grace our reunion parties by your presence (we do like to know your surprised attendance at least 2 or 3 days ahead of time though).

We may not all agree. But school reunions rank pretty high in my life time priority list.  It is usually not that we don't have time to do certain things.  It may be where we rank their priorities. School reunions help us evaluate the meaning of life and appreciate the importance of true friendship. We do not have to and we don't live in our past.  We do and should always look forward to a brighter future.  However, WHO AM I IF I DON'T REMEMBER MY PAST?  Not even remembering the joyous moments in my childhood with my buddies?  Memories of innocent school day deeds are always
good things to rekindle.  This is not a once every year reunion.  This is at least the only once every 5 years event.  If we exaggerate a little bit, it is the once every 30 years event.  How many of those events can we have?  Put it another way, they could be the events that I may regret later for not attending.

We are not asking you to quit your job, divorce your spouse or abandon your kids in order to join.  Definitely not and please don't.  We want you to join and have their blessings.  We like to have you bring your spouse and your kids if possible, or go back to their welcoming and loving arms right after your short visit to Los Angeles.  We also like to see you go back to a promotion at work.  You can do it.  It is just a matter of one weekend, albeit a slightly "long weekend".  We are asking you to spare one weekend - particularly for those who live in the U.S. and Canada.  We will obviously
appreciate even more if those outside U.S. and Canada can decide to join us in the last minute.

AND PLEASE HELP US CALL BY PHONE:  According to the statistics supplied by
Charles TMS, 90% of those who confirmed to come to L.A. belong to our group email list.  However, it still doesn't mean that most of the classmates on the email list are coming.  There are 144 of you on that email list.  50 or 55 is smaller than half of 144 and is even less when compared with the 278 classmates whom we supposedly have good contacts with.
 So we like to urge all of you who receives this email to try to call one or two more buddies of yours by phone to ask them to come with you and join us in Los Angeles.   The address list supplied by Charles a few days earlier will be helpful for you to find the numbers to call.  Let me know if you need that list again.

As to plane tickets, I learn from one classmate that he managed to get a last minute and inexpensive ticket from priceline.com.  I don't suppose everyone could get the same good deal.  But if you try, I think you can still find tickets somewhere. And if you are within driving distance of Los Angeles, warm up your engine, please.

Coming to the parties may be simpler than you thought:

There are two parties, one on July 27th, Friday starting 2 p.m. in Shirley's house lasting for the rest of the day with food and is FREE.  Many thanks to Shirley.  Shirley's house in Hacienda Heights is easy to find and is about 45 minutes from LAX by car.  Car rental rate in Los Angeles is very reasonable.
 Shirley's address can be obtained from Kong Se web site (www.sichk.com) or from Charles' address list under Wong, Yuk Ying Shirley.

The other big party is the evening dinner event at Sheraton Hotel the next day on July 28th, Saturday, for about $50 per person to be paid at the door by check or cash.  The party starts at 5 p.m.:

Industrial Hills Sheraton
One Industry Hills Parkway
City of Industry, CA 91744
Tel 626 810 4455

The hotel is only 6 or 7 minutes away from Shirley's house by car.  Hotel rate is quite reasonable at $79 a night PER ROOM even for double occupancy (without breakfast) before taxes.  No need for individual hotel reservation (but we like to know a little bit ahead of time so that we can tell the hotel to reserve more rooms in total).  Upon arrival, check in at the reception with reference to Kong Se Reunion.

Lastly and most importantly, I like to emphasize one more time that every one of you counts and counts significantly.  It is not for any record or any statistics.  We actually don't care about those.  Just one more of you who can attend will make our reunion so much better and so much more meaningful.
 Even if you attended our Silver Jubilee, I am pretty sure there is a good chance during the coming L.A. reunion that you will still meet someone whom you like to see again but haven't met for the past 30 somewhat years.  Vice versa for us if we can see only one more of you again.  Just that alone may be well worth it for all of us.  

For those who really can't come, you know that we will miss you and be thinking about you during these rejoicing reunion moments.

Warmest regards,
WOO Shu Kwan