Another successful Norphans Reunion Weekend is behind us. The Norphans’ board, Jerry Brindisi '74, Tom Crossett '75, Jason Marquess '67 & Mike McBride '81, would like to thank everyone who attended one or more of our events over the three day weekend.
All of the money raised over this weekend goes to the Norphans’ scholarship fund, which funds modest grants to the children and grandchildren of North Catholic graduates to offset the ever increasing cost of Catholic Education in the Philadelphia region.
The Norphans’ Scholarship fund cannot be possible without all of you who come out and support us throughout the year. We would like to specifically thank our Platinum, Gold and Silver sponsors, whose generous donations to our cause enables us to pass thousands of dollars each year to our families so their children and grandchildren can attend Catholic Schools.
Our Platinum Sponsors
Our Gold Sponsors
Our Silver Sponsors
In addition to those people who donate to the Norphans, there are many “behind the scenes” people who help us pull off our full weekend of events. We’d like to thank them and the organizations for their continued support throughout the years.
Thank you to the Avalon Golf Club, who cleared a block of time to allow over 150 North Catholic grads play golf to kick off our weekend on Friday morning. Thanks to Dennis & the rest of the Avalon GC for their fine hospitality as usual.
Our Guest Bartenders on Friday night were 3 longtime & admired teachers Fran Dougherty ’59, Chuck Snyder ’61, Bill Travers , Jim O’Connor ’73, Vince Market ’81, Matty McIntyre ’84, Dave Mastropietro ’87, Don Campbell ‘99 , Denny Holmes ‘01. All of the tips that were generated for the evening were donated to the Norphans’ Scholarship fund. For this we are grateful to their extremely hard work & generosity of the patrons imbibing for a great cause.
Selling Norphans’ gear during the weekend were Tom Crosset '75, Butch Oakes '73, Jerry Brindisi '74, Kevin “Max” McGettigan ‘82, Dennis McDonough '76, Tom Oakes '76. These people choose to work these events selling gear so the rest of us can enjoy the weekend events. For that, we thank each and every one of them. Our clothing line is produced by proud Falcons Jay ’95 & Joe Petaccio ‘89 of JP Tees in Port Richmond who do an amazing job year in & year out. As the only provider of NC gear that benefits North families & not their businesses, they selflessly dedicate their time & talent helping us assist others. Also kudos to Ed Dymowski ’81, of 3D Printing in National Park NJ provides our tickets , posters & banners which help publicize our events throughout the year.
We also want to thank John Barnes '89 for gaining access to the Bill Henfey Athletic Complex for the Soccer Alumni game that was enjoyed by over 300 Falcons and their families. This year was a special tribute to Police Officer Bill Seifert ’91 who passed away earlier this spring. Bill was also a dedicated lacrosse coach at our “sister school” Little Flower. Bill will be sorely missed & was celebrated throughout our weekend.
John Barnes is always instrumental in pulling together the annual Mass on the Beach. Our Mass is hands down the best organized Mass at the Jersey shore, and this is all due to the hard work of John. John also donated water & delicious coffee from his Beach Brew business. We’d like to thank Father John Kelly , NC ’71 for once again being our officiant . In addition, we’d like to thank our amazing singers, Nina Straface & Tim Kelly, as well as the Father/Son team of Joe and Matt Mullin for their wonderful music throughout the Mass & Jamie O’Donnell’03 ? as our sound guy .
Keenan’s Irish Pub in North Wildwood is the location for both our Guest Bartender event as well as our main event on Saturday. Thanks to this entire organization, from the bartenders, ticket collectors, cooks, servers, & especially their management staff of Karen Fanning , Jim Reeves & Scott Keenan who help make our event the premier reunion . There are far too many people to mention, but everyone at Keenan’s went out of their way to ensure that we had a couple of successful events throughout the weekend.
Finally, we like to thank the behind the scenes tech gurus, Anthony Biondo at Biondo Creative (www.BiondoCreative.com) for building and maintaining our online store, www.NCFalconMall.com, and Mike Ferris Sr ’82, for maintaining our website (www.Norphans.org), social media accounts and taking pictures at our events.
It takes a lot of dedicated people to pull off the best High School Reunion weekend in Wildwood. Without these people, this type of weekend doesn’t happen. On behalf of the Norphans Board of Directors, we thank all of these people as well as those people who attended one or more of the events during this weekend.
Thank you,
The Norphans Board of Directors
Jerry Brindisi '74
Tom Crossett '75
Jason Marquess '67
Mike McBride '81
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