Rockaway Beach, New York 
Official Reunion Web Site

"Painting a Portrait of a Community"

February 26, 2001

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who responded to my web site appeal. As a result of your overwhelming show of support for keeping this web site on the net, the Far Rockaway High School Online Alumni Association was created to fund this site through your alumni donations and www.farrockaway.com will remain on the web for years to come.

I have thought about all of you who have written to me about keeping the site going and in some small way, would like to acknowledge the time you took to write....so, below are your comments. Thanks again and I hope to hear from all of you very soon.

Sincerely,

Skip Weinstock
Class of 1963

This web site is a means of contact with the other alumni members. It's our way of keeping in touch and staying in the "Rockaway" loop. I love it!!!

If it were not for this web site I would have never found out about the reunion. I would have never been able to contact alumni I knew from 30 years ago. This was like a healing to me. I had always felt incomplete about my time in high school. There is a long story behind it all which I am not prepared to elaborate on here. Suffice to say I support the continuance of this site totally and thank all involved for it.

Skip, you and I know how hard it's been for you to find the time necessary to work on this website, a never ending task, but one that I know you feel is a labor of love. I pray that you'll get funded from the alumni association. We can ill-afford to lose this site and your creativity.

I really like visiting this web site. Just today I was reading the Palm Beach Post and read an obituary announcing the passing of Mrs. Gertrude Griffin at age 85. She was one of my all time favorite teachers at F.R.H.S where she taught social studies for 35 years.

I feel strongly that this web site should be maintained. However, I would reorganize it into a series of pages with links on page one, rather than one long page.

Keep up the good work, Skip

Just got webtv and I am truly amazed at what I see. I don't know if you'll remember me so get out your '63 yearbook and turn to Leibowitz, Ellen - that's me! I lived in Arverne and I was friendly with Sharyn Abrams, Lois Krinsky and my close friend was Eileen Isacoff in Bayswater and Sheli Pack. So many years have gone by. We were at the 25th reunion in'88 but not the recent one in Sept. We get back to NY very often but the timing just wasn't right. It's really great to see all this information and the trivia, makes you stop and think and travel back in time to our "good old days"! I think I may have some pictures of our senior boat ride but living in Southern California, we were right in the middle of the epicenter of the big quake in '94, I'm going search for them and hope they weren't lost. I've been in touch with Mari Davis Schreiber and contacted Gayle Gordon Richter. Please let me know if you'd like those boatride pictures, I'd love to send them to you. Regards and thanks for the memories.

This website is incredible--being so far from NYC it is a wonderful reminder of all of the special times I shared with so many people. By the way, I know someone here in Omaha who may be interested in helping maintain this site. I plan on speaking with him this week and will keep you posted. Also, since we have a cable modem I have never found the site too slow or too full of graphics--comments I have heard from others. There are some advantages to Omaha Nebraska--being in middle America a lot of things are tested here first.

This site has been fabulous. Renewing old friendships is so important as we get older. Reading everyone's memories of FRHS and Far Rock the town makes me feel so nostalgic. It was such a great place--we can't let the web site disappear now. Finding lost classmates is incredible! Each year as different classes have their reunions, we'll all be able to reminisce as they share comments on the web. I even love reading everything over and over on the site. You've done a tremendous job, Skip. The least we can all do is put our $upport towards it's continuation! YES!!!!!!!!

Alan, This site cannot stop. We must make it continue. You have done an outstanding job.

FRHS just received some new computer equipment-why can't the school itself uses this site as an ongoing class project? Barring that then the dues money should be used to keep this great site up and running. Another thought is to approach the Wave and see if they might like to publish an electronic version of the Wave and include this site.

I am very sad to learn that his sit will be discontinued as of January 1st. If there is anything I can do please let me know. What happened to Reunion Hall? Have been trying to sign on. Hope the Assn. is able to use the dues to help support his site.

It's been a great page and has helped rekindle many memories and good feelings about a place and time that to me is now very far away. The energy on the various FRHS web pages has dissipated since the Sept. reunion. The time has probably come to provide a different agenda for the pages. Perhaps finding a way to help the Rockaways of today while we continue to reminisce about the past. You've done yeoman's work and we all owe you a debt of thanks.

I have paid double alumni dues, and I feel that your website has been an instigator of many new/old friendships and memories. It represents the major link for FRHS graduates, and because it is user-interactive, it generates current information without even your dependency (although I'm convinced that your maintenance is critical to continued use). I strongly support both the use of alumni dues, and/or an additional specific assessment for the purpose of maintaining this website for (all of our) use.

Alumni should maintain site beats the PO for communications saves postage easily updated etc.

Keep up the good work. When can I sign up for the alumni business connection?

This site MUST be kept going. As an alumni function it is one of the few places one can easily keep up with events and other alumni in an interactive way. It is easily accessible and has continued to grow in usage ever since its inception. Skip's work should not be allowed to go to waste! As a dues paying member I greatly support the funding of this site.

I truly believe that one of the reasons that the turnout at the reunion was so great was because many of us were able to learn about the reunion and friends who were going via this web site. It created a level of excitement and anticipation that could not otherwise have been created.

I would greatly appreciate this site continuing. It keeps us updated with all info on my many friends and new friends. I am very grateful that you take the time to inform us and listen to our suggestions. Thank you for all your time.

Let's keep a good thing going!

I have really enjoyed this website. It brings back so many great memories. Keep it going somehow!!!!

Skip this has been a great web page....even an experience for those of us who have been away from the Rockaways for a long time. I greatly appreciate the existence of this web page and will do what I can to help support and maintain it.

I think the web page is great and would be saddened to see it go!

Skip, you have done a great job and I am sorry to see it go (I expected the School to catch up with you one of these days). There should be a FRHS site and I understand that there is a Alumni Association meeting today or so (why they don't send in an invite I'll never know, but it is hard for me to make the meetings anyway). We do need to coordinate between you, Carol, and Reunion Hall (if it ever recovers). Good luck and I hope we can continue with something somewhere.

This web site is terrific. I have been able to reconnect with so many people and would never have been able to do so without this web site. I am now moving to Florida and have a network of friends waiting for my arrival. Much of my warm reception in Florida will is due to the reigniting of friendships thru this web site. Thanks so much. I can't think of a better way to spend my dues than to maintain this site.

Good luck Skip

Alan, this has been a really great site. I missed not hearing from anyone through the years, but you've brought it all back. Hope we can keep it. It was great seeing you again.

This site is great & provides a valuable service-especially for those of us who have such fond memories of growing up in the Rockaways but are now distant. I have found & am corresponding with 4 old friends. From the second I graduated from FRHS I never once heard from them. I have no interest in paying dues to an alumni group I never even knew existed. Would hate to lose this site.

Nice job - keeps me "grounded" and always in touch.

Not many people I meet are as lucky to have gone to a school that after so many years so many of us still want to go back in time and search out our old friends. What could be better? Anyone involved in this should be commended.

Too much extraneous and old material. Way too many graphics.

Keep up the good work. P.S. Who knows when we will receive the alumni directory and reunion journal?

Please keep this web site open - it has enabled me to find some lost friends. Thank you!

Don't go!

Well developed web site that serves the frhs alumni as a central meeting place to exchange ideas, share memories and renew friendships. Since the reunion it serves a far more reaching purpose of helping people to connect, posting upcoming events and providing a town hall to meet other frhs alumni. Heartily endorsed.

It's a great web site.

This site is wonderful I would hate to see it leave. I hope it's around for many more yrs.

This is a one of a kind site - it has been bringing such great feelings to everyone before the reunion and for those who didn't attend - a replacement. It still brings about the warmest feelings and friendship among alumni of all years. We must keep it going...

What better way to keep the alumni assoc alive and well than continuing this site. We all realize that it is not as though we can return to Rockaway on vacations and visit our parents or relatives or friends still living in Rockaway. Unlike most of the people I have met subsequent to leaving Rockaway, we can't return home. Let's keep our memories alive here and stay in contact with each other this way. Look what a tremendous effect this site had in making the reunion a once in a life time opportunity. I for one saw so many people that I had lost touch with. I even rang the door bell to my old house and was given a tour! What a trip. I thank you for establishing this web site and giving so many people a change to connect with our past. Let's keep in going!

I would like to see this site maintained. It was instrumental in the success of the reunion

Takes too long to load - there should be a way to eliminate stuff that's purely decorative? or make picture loading optional (I don't want to reconfigure my browser just because this site has too much graphical material)?

For goals such as this, in today's world, this is the best form of communication.

Will this site be advertised? What information will we find here? I haven't been to this site since I knew I wouldn't make it to the reunion. It was good to find out information about the reunion. Will there be a place to ask questions of the Alumni committee?

It's nice to know "home" is still there. Thanks to all of you involved in this for your energy and time.

I have enjoyed the web site. It has brought me into contact with other FRHS alum, and has renewed memories of "the old haunt".

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