The seventh joint alumni reunion for Tift County Industrial Elementary and High School and Wilson Elementary and High School alumni opened at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday with a proclamation, ribbon cutting and a few welcoming words from Mayor Jamie Cater.

The Tifwilar reunion is in honor of the graduating classes of the two schools in Tifton which were formerly “black schools,” before integration.

Given every three years, it brings together graduating class members of the two schools from 1930 to 1975. This year’s reunion brought people from as far as California, New York, New Jersey and Germany.

“We get together to keep our heritage and culture alive and to keep our classmates reunited,” said Fannie “Fran” Prophet-Kinchen, the reunion coordinator.

The Tifwilar school reunion president, Kenneth Newkirk, said this year marks the largest in attendance for the reunion.

“We have had great participation this year with over 100 people registered for the activities, 240 guests attending the banquet Saturday night and people traveling so far to make it,” Newkirk said.

The event is a five-day gathering of classmates and their families with activities such as a family picnic, a dance, a banquet, golfing, bowling, card games, fishing, a fashion show, a memorial service, motorcade and a Sunday morning worship service.

At the banquet tonight at the UGA Conference Center, they will show a video with memorable moments from this year’s reunion and the class of 1966 will present their annual scholarship awards and make a donation to the local soup kitchen.