Doreen Bohling Tobin holds her 1970 yearbook from St. Pius X, which holds photos of the classmates she is excited to see again at the Pius and Saranac Lake high schools’ joint 1970 and 1971 class reunion this weekend. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

SARANAC LAKE — As Doreen Tobin flipped through her St. Pius X yearbook from 1970, the year she graduated, she reminisced on the classmates she grew up with and said she was excited to see their faces again this weekend.

The graduating classes of 1970 and 1971 from Saranac Lake High School and St. Pius X will be holding a joint 50th reunion around town from Friday to Sunday, and Tobin said Saranac Lake alumni are traveling from around the country to tour their alma mater, gather around food, catch up on years of life events and swap stories of yore.

Those who are good at math may have noticed that the 50th 1970 class reunion was actually supposed to have been held two years ago. Tobin said the coronavirus pandemic forced them to postpone their big gathering plans, and reunion organizers agreed to merge their celebration five decades in the making with the class of 1971.

Tobin said for her, this is a significant merging, as these are the final two graduating classes from the St. Pius X Catholic High School, which closed in 1971 after operating as a high school since 1959. The high school building is where Citizen Advocates now operates the HHOTT House Garden Center.

Tobin said her class has held a reunion every five years since graduation and they started planning this one four years ago — a 50th anniversary is a big deal.

“Who knows how many more of these we’ll have?” she wondered. “We’ve already lost quite a few members of our respective classes.”

During the weekend, she said, classmates will hold a tribute to the friends they have lost over the years.

“I think a lot of us are recognizing the fact that we’ve lost some people that were very dear to us and we don’t want to end this relationship without having a chance to reconnect with people in our class,” Tobin said. “People disperse across the country.”

Organizers have spent a lot of time reaching out to each individual, calling them and inviting them to the reunion. Tobin said she’s found it nice to reconnect with old friends.

She said that some of the people coming, she hasn’t seen in years, even at past reunions.

“I’m just really excited to see everybody that can be there again,” Tobin said.

She added that organizers have built a fund for people who might not have the resources to return, paying their way to Saranac Lake. She said the volunteers organizing the event are committed to the work.

It’s hard work, but it’s what she calls “heart work.”

Tobin said she moved to Saranac Lake at the end of fourth grade and found her home here. She attended St. Bernard’s, the old Lake Clear School and then St. Pius X. She found “great friendships at Pius” and she was sad when it closed two years after her graduation.

“It had a very special community in there,” she said.

Pius was small, so they got to do a little bit of everything — French club, science club, debate club. They were taught by nuns, priests and lay-people.

This weekend, she said even a few coaches and teachers will be coming out to join the reunion.

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1971 reunion schedule

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Events kick off Friday evening for the 1971 SLHS and Pius classes with a gathering at the Elk’s Club at 6 p.m. Things get rolling on Saturday morning with a “Breakfast Bowl” at Romano’s at 10 a.m. After all that food, they’ll head for a walk on the Bloomingdale Bog trail at 1 p.m. before meeting back up with the 1970 class at the Red Fox for dinner at 5 p.m.

Before parting ways — at least, until the next reunion — they’ll hold a big event at Lake Colby on Sunday at 11:30 a.m.

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1970 reunion schedule

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The Class of 1970 will hold a reception at the Moose Lodge on Friday starting at 5 p.m. and going until the lights are turned out. On Saturday, the SLHS class will tour their former high school building — currently the Saranac Lake middle school — with SLCSD Superintendent Diane Fox, and then tour the new high school.

“We were the first class to graduate from the ‘new’ high school and moved in after Christmas vacation — so the Middle School was our school from seventh grade ’til half way thru our senior year,” reunion organizer Rose Linfoot Anderson wrote in an email.

While that happens, the St. Pius X 1970 class will gather at the Latour Picnic area across from Adirondack Medical Center.

The classes will meet up at 1:30 p.m. for a tour through the Historical Saranac Lake museum with Mahala Nyberg of the Saranac Laboratory Museum. The tour starts at Riverside Park.

After that, the evening will round out with a 5 p.m. dinner at Red Fox.

On Sunday, the classes will hold a farewell pancake breakfast at the Moose Lodge at 10 a.m.