After a full year of planning, the 25th anniversary of the ACSS Class of 80 finally got on its way on 05 February 2005, the Saturday before Chinese New Year! This date was thoughtfully chosen to coincide with cohorts returning from overseas for their Chinese New Year family reunions. And indeed, there were a dozen or so who flew in from Australia, the United States of America, Thailand, Hong Kong and China for the occasion!

It was just like back to school for the large turnout of 160 old boys and 20 teachers who gathered at the ACS (Barker Road) in an auditorium decked with school colours, blown up school magazine photographs, and even photocopies of newspapers exactly 25 years earlier! Our Guest-of-Honour Mr Earnest Lau spoke about the ACS Spirit, an apt topic given the distances many had travelled to be present.

The camaraderie that evening was evident as the cohorts from all walks of life had a boisterous time catching up with one another. There was fun all round and we even had our own People’s Choice contest for the cohorts.

Among the awards dished out, Paul Ang with a girth of 46 inches narrowly won the Mr Prosperity title against strong competition, the never ageing Ian Tan was named Mr Peter Pan, and the much-envied Sim Sze Kuan clinched the Mr Eligibility award. It was a great evening that ended too soon, but not before we raised $6,000 for the ACS cause!

Full marks to the organising committee for its massive efforts in planning and managing such a successful evening! It is commendable that it managed to track and round up so many cohorts for the event. In the process, members of the committee learned a lot about organising reunions and have documented their experiences to share with others in the ACS family. If anyone is interested in getting advice and pointers for their class reunions, please contact Chet Choon at wooner@gmail.com or call him at 9760-8681.