During the past month or so, I have been contacted by three people that I attended school with. All of them found me via online classmate finder services. I've been registered with a couple of services for a while now, but I've only used the free memberships. I have a registered profile with classmates.com and reunion.com. I think I'm signed up for another, too, but can't remember the name.
I get periodic emails about new sign ups and how many are people that were at the same school at the the same time. Some names I remember, some I don't. I've been tempted a few times to pay the fee and get a 'gold' membership or whatever so I could access email addresses and such, but I just never did.
About a month ago, I got an email from through one of the services from a friend I went to grade school with. She'd paid the price to access the special members area and got my email. I was surprised to say the least to get an email from an old friend. I quickly responded to her email and she answered back with a quick update. Some of my friends that are still living in the Cleveland area were thinking about trying to have a reunion/get together of sorts next summer. This would be a 20 year reunion of our 8th grade class. Now, I know some of you may be thinking, "Middle school reunion? Why?" Well, I went to a Catholic school and we were classmates in the same school from 1st through 8th grade. It looks as if the timeframe might match up well with the graduation of my students here, so I may be able to take some leave and head back to Cleveland to go to this get together and visit my family all at one time.
Well, a little over a week ago, I received an email from another service that said someone was searching for me on that services web page. I logged in and had an email waiting for me. Now, this service requires you to pay to receive an email, but the person that sent the email was smart and put a web address in the subject line. So, I followed the web address and it took me to a web page set up as an alumni service specifically for a high school. Now, I didn't graduate from this school. We moved from this school's zone to another zone during my Junior year, but I did attend three full years there. I then moved on to the other school for my senior year. I signed up for the service with this school, wondering if it would let me, since I wouldn't appear on a graduation roster, but there was no problem. This service is currently allowing full access to all its features for free. Something about it being a new school page and while building a base of alumni, all services would be free for a limited time. Well, that worked out great.
Last week, I was contacted by a good friend of mine from that school. He had logged into the school web page and got my email address. It was great to hear from him. I hadn't seen or talked to him in years. He joined the Navy shortly after graduating and I only got to see him once, I think, when he came back on leave after the first Gulf War. After a couple of emails and a IM session on messenger, he motivated me to dig out some old photos.
I've either lost some or have a secret stash of pics that I may find later, but I didn't find nearly as many as I thought I would. But, I did find some. I also found some other pictures that I completely forgot I had. Some pics may have to be shredded to protect the guilty! I also found an old folder of my writing from grade and high school. Talk about a serious trip down memory lane. I even found my 'Senior Will'!
So, in answer to my own question, "Are they (alumni services) worth it?" I'd say so. Although, I still don't think I'll be paying for the extras...