It's often rare that high school classmates stay connected more than a year or two after graduation.
Reunions come and go, but those relationships, good times and struggles forged in the hallowed halls of your alma mater usually become distant memories by the fifth or 10th one.

50 years after Becky Kvitrud and the rest of the Howland High class of 1972 graduated and set out into the world, they though they'd seen it all. Then came COVID...followed by the isolation and uncertainty.

"I was bored silly 'cause I had nothing to plan," Kvitrud says.

It seemed folks everywhere realized it was time to reconnect while they still could, by any means necessary.
So Kvitrud enlisted the help of some of her classmates.

"Jerry and Jeff (Armstrong) and I did start it during COVID," Kvitrud says. "They're both techy people much more than myself and I needed all the help I could get!"

What started as catching up and occasional small talk over zoom has become something much more over the last several months.
At least a couple dozen classmates routinely check in virtually to a support system that's carried them through the ups and downs of real life.

"We may all have different persuasions, different ideas and different attitudes, but the fact that we can still find common things to talk about and relate to each other as human beings without dwelling on our differences I think is a positive thing," says Jeff Armstrong.

Not to mention a valuable life lesson that could never be taught in a classroom.
The class of '72 will surely have plenty to talk about - and celebrate - when they gather for their in-person reunion July 8.