Former student plans Foster Middle School reunion | Lifestyle

A reunion for students who attended Foster Middle School from the 1980s through 2011 will be held on July 30th and 31st at Landmark Social, 210 E. Methvin St., in downtown Longview.

The reunion “Dragons Return Home 2021” is the brainstorm of Paris Sweets, who attended Foster Middle School from 1994 to 1996.

Sweets also attended Longview High School, but never graduated. She had never had the experience of meeting friends and classmates for a formal reunion.

Wanting to reconnect with people she’d gone to school with, Sweets started thinking about her time at Foster Middle School.

“I just wanted to be able to connect with some of my friends and be comfortable around me,” she said. “We expect about 300 people, maybe more.”

The planning for the reunion began a year ago.

“There is a group called Foster School Alumni and I met so many friends there,” said Sweets. “So I thought we have to reconnect because you never know who you know … what kind of help they might want you in your career or whatever you want in life.”

To get the process going, Sweets contacted a former teacher and hired what she calls the “Dream Team”.

“I found her on Facebook and contacted my math teacher Janice Pratt, who lives in Dallas,” she said. “I wanted to make sure I could get all the teachers who were still alive.”

Sweets said Pratt then contacted retired Longview teacher Mattie Cuba.

“She helped us bring all of these people together from middle school,” Sweets said of Cuba.

“MS. Pratt told (Sweets) that I was still in Longview and connected with people from the district and that I probably know a lot more people and how to get in touch with everyone,” said Cuba. “So I did I got involved. I jumped in and have since tried to get in touch with my colleagues. “

Before that, Cuba hadn’t spoken to Pratt or Sweets in a long time.

“I hadn’t spoken to any of them in years,” said Cuba, Sweets’ English teacher in sixth grade. “They told me what the plans were and asked if I would help find people to take part in the reunion.”

Cuba said around 90 teachers are expected to attend the reunification.

“We have principals, assistant principals, and some students,” she said. “I’ve mostly kept up with the teacher side.”

Cuba taught at Foster for 21 years, from 1990-2011.

“(Foster) left Green Street in 2011 and … went to (Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard),” she said. We have the reunion from the 1980s until around 2011 when we left 410 S. Green St. “

Reunion activities include an official ball for teachers and alumni on July 30th and a balloon release on July 31st that will be open to the public. For more information, call (318) 516-0577.

“We’re going to have games for the kids and everyone can socialize and reconnect,” said Sweets.

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