Fox Lane Class of 1960 to Gather for 50th Reunion

The Fox Lane High School graduating class of 1960 will celebrate their 50th reunion the last weekend in August at the Mount Kisco Holiday Inn. The weekend is so full of top-secret surprises, there is only one person who knows about them: the woman in charge. 

"I am THE committee," Sara Van Akin (married name: Walsh) said. She is the mastermind behind the whole weekend. One, she says, isn't to be missed. 

Van Akin, now retired, always loved computers. She worked for IBM for years when she was younger, and was even one of the first employees to be trained on a personal computer. So when her children told her she had to get on Facebook a few years ago, she eventually took their advice. 

"I said, 'Facebook? What do I want Facebook for?' But I got very hooked within a few days, and within a few weeks I found 200 people from Fox Lane."

Van Akin became adept at social networking--- and the application game "Mafia Wars." Soon, her classmate communications had her asked the same question over and over: "When is our 50th reunion?"

"I said, 'what are they asking me for?' Then I called around, and nobody was doing a 50th reunion." 

So Van Akin took up the task, doing everything she could to wrangle up classmates and find people she hadn't spoken to in 50 years. It took her over two years of legwork to find approximately 100 of the 144 in her graduating class. 70 of the 100 she has located will be attending the reunion. 

Every detail has been carefully planned by Van Akin (who calls herself the "Reunion Committee" even though she's a one-woman-show). There will be a buffet at the Holiday Inn and a raffle. She has prepared goodie bags and a slew of other surprises.

"There will be a total blow away surprise," Van Akin said. "I am totally psyched." 

The list of classmates Van Akin has compiled includes doctors, ranchers, Japanese professors and composers . They live in Kentucky, Florida, Oklahoma and New Jersey. But they're all looking forward to the reunion. 

"Our four years at Fox Lane were memorable," June Cobb Christie said. "We should have a great reunion!" 

One classmate who cannot attend the reunion is disappointed. 

"Please say hello to everyone at the reunion for me," Niles Jackson said. "I do wish I could be there with you."

Money raised from the reunion tickets and raffles will be donated to the arts and music program at Fox Lane. 

"We recognize that programs are being cut, and kids are deprived of arts and music," Van Akin said. "That's not the way it used to be."