SAN PEDRO HIGH SCHOOL'S CENTENNIAL GALA Held on Saturday, April 12, 2003 at the Port of Los Angeles/San Pedro Hilton (site of our class's 30 Year Reunion) the group of 2,300 "took over" the entire hotel property to party in the only style appropriate for "real" San Pedrans: with gusto and abandon! The Gala began early on that Saturday, as dozens of "decade" committee members and helpers arrived at the hotel to begin setting up their designated rooms with memorabilia. Drills, hammers, nails, screws and a party atmosphere pervaded the entire place as people happily went about the business of getting set up for thousands to view their special and unique items. Many who arrived at 10 a.m. to set up never left the hotel property until many hours later (in some cases, 15 hours later) while some took advantage of the hotel's accomodations to stay the night.

The Decade of the 1970s Room The Decade of the 1970s was definitely the "decade room" of the Centennial Gala. Spearheaded by Mark Wells (Class of 1973, Ke-Alians) and contributed to by every class of the decade, the 1970s Decade Room was spectacular! An 18 foot long folding screen panel system, conceived and constructed by Mark Wells, formed the base for each class (from W'70 through 1979) to display items from their time period. Each class was assigned a single side of a "door" (80" tall, 30" wide). On both ends of the folding screen enclosed display cases stabilized the entire system and allowed irreplaceable items of interest to be displayed: lettermen jackets & photos and drill team outfits (donated by Michael De La Hunt and Anita (Gioiello) Trujillo, respectively). One "door" was a general tribute to the entire 70s period, as conceived and executed by Valerie (Smith) Griffin (Class of W'70) and featured hand-painted slogans and the now-famous picture of nude John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Additionally, Pam Cameron arranged to borrow mannequins from "Norman's" (with thanks to Nick & Lucia D'Ambrosi and Mike & Jorja Mazzella!) so that a 1979 Varsity Cheerleader uniform (loaned by Raime Quick), period "street" clothing (loaned by Pam Cameron [1972] and Toni Martinovich [Class of 1975], and a 1971-72 Drill Team uniform (complete with hat, shoes and pom-poms, loaned by Yvonne (Anderson) Butner) could be displayed. The Class of 1977, "Odyssey" lent their class flag for display, and a few class sweaters, Knight and Knightette sweaters and other "club wear" of the day also made an appearance. Topping off the 1970s Decade Room was a PowerPoint Presentation, shown on a 5 foot screen, highlighting photos from each yearbook from 1970 through 1979, produced by Michele Burk. To complete the multimedia experience, Jonathan Lococo (Pam Cameron's son) burned three custom CDs with music from the period - played on a boom box!

Class of 1972 Attendees

We know, from signatures in our "decade room" guest book that the following Class of 1972 members saw our wonderful room: Sharon (Stecker) & George Lusic, Benny Esparza, Sergio Perez, Louis Kirtides, Ray De La Cruz, Lisa (Monsaas) Jimenez, Tom Budar, Greg Tyler, Marilyn (Gonzales) Seaman, Bill Cuthbert, Julie (Monti) Denby, Kris (Gustafson) Brust, Johanna (Demaria) & Rick Reyes, Sherry (Newcomer) Hernandez, Anne (Utovac) Johnson, Terri (Hoshi) Kalman, Leonard Russo, Randy and Linda (Synstelien) Thiedeman, Debbie (Wheatley) & Brian Ferguson, Lori Isakson, Gayle Williamson, Bill Berdanis, Inez (Gonzales) Ponce, Louise Timmer, Kim (Weston) Goebel, Cindy Ryan, Rosemary Trujillo, Maurice Gainen, Mary Anne (Alex) Tippin, Yvonne (Anderson) Butner, Paula Falsetta, Pam Cameron, Bob Gascon, Karen (Paglialonga) Kildoo, Marc Fortain, Peggy Folsom, Sandy (Lindberg) Davis, Linda (Heinrich) Richard, Brian Ferguson, Suzie (Cooper) Katnich, Ruben Gonzales, Steve Aranda, Joanne Logrande, Billy Alexander, Suzanne (Kostrencich) Kunich and Michele Burk.