What started as a reunion for five former Andalusia High School classes has become a big to do, including the classes of 1976-1982.

Event organizer Linda Davis said she and Cindy Sharpe Kilgore first started talking about a reunion that would incorporate their classes. Davis is a member of the class of 1978 and Kilgore the class of 1980.

“It just kept getting bigger and bigger,” Davis said. “And now it’s escalated into all these classes.”

Usually, AHS classes hold reunions during homecoming. This one will be a summer event.

“It takes away from the normal homecoming activities,” Davis said. “Especially since we have something this large.”

The event will be held June 12 from 6 p.m. to midnight at the Kiwanis Community Center.

“We have a hundred and something signed up, but almost half haven’t paid their money,” she said. “The cost is $25 for single and $35 for a couple.”

“A lot of people don’t understand why it costs so much,” she said.

“We have to pay for insurance, security, food, cleanup and a DJ, not to mention the advertising expense and the postage. We will be donating anything that is above our costs to AHS.”

Davis said she encourages everyone to go ahead and pay because the group does have to pay for the expenses up front. The deadline is May 30.

Davis said response hasn’t been as good as she had hoped.

“It’s hard for us to get addresses since most people only have cell phones,” she said. “We have more than 1,100 on our list, but we don’t have all of the addresses.”

Another thing Davis said is putting a damper on the reunion is the low number of local participants.

“More people from Covington County should come because they don’t have to pay for airline tickets, etc,” she said.

“We have people coming from Illinois, Kansas, California, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Texas.

“We need more local people to get involved,” she said. “We need to show people things have changed, but in a way they are still the same. We need to bring back school pride.”

Davis said Kinsey’s Photography will be at the event and will take photos of each class and the entire group.

“It will be $25 for each person who wants a picture and that will be paid directly to the photographer,” she said.

“The event will be a 6-hour reminiscing.”

Anyone who knows anyone or anyone associated with the members of these classes, is asked to stop by the Andalusia Public Library or call Davis at 427-3030.