Mary D. Bradford High School Class of 1973 welcomes you to its web site!
It's for you... best of all, it is absolutely free! Find your name on the list of Classmate Profiles and register now to log in and create your own profile page (upload photos and let your classmates know what you've been up to since our days at Mary D.). Classmate address, phone number(s) and email address are required for verification purposes when you create your profile.
This is the only endorsed OFFICIAL website for the Bradford High School Class of 1973. Don't be taken in by organizations purporting to have a connection with our alma mater which have no connection whatsoever to Bradford High School and our local Kenosha community.
You may be wondering if your contact information (i.e., address and phone number) is secure on our website. When you post changes to the mailing address and phone numbers in your profile on the website, an automatic notice of the update is sent to our Site Administrators, Randy and Jan Vaccaro. We have “checked the box” to Block Profile Visibility for everyone listed on the Class of ’73 website. This blocks public and search engines from accessing the information contained in your profile. Classmates who are logged in on the website cannot see your street address or phone numbers, but they may see photos and any personal narrative you share in your profile. If you send a message to a classmate through the website, they will see your email address.
In March 2021, we obtained a secure certificate for our Class of '73 website, so you'll no longer receive a warning from the web browser you're using that our website is not secure.
06/04/2024: Late yesterday, we received a thank-you letter from Ella Cater, Bradford Class of 2024, who was chosen by KBHSAA as the Class of 1973 scholarship recipient. We've posted the letter below. Thanks to our '73 Classmates who responded so generously to our request for scholarship fund donations!
10/18/2023: Our laptop was cleared: no virus – just a full screen pop-up from a scammer pretending a connection with Microsoft, suggesting we contact Microsoft at a specific phone number for assistance. The Geek Squad guy we talked to said it was good that we did not call the phone#, where the scammer would have attempted to get us to let him/her take control of our laptop to "fix" the issue.
The key thing we want to share is that there was no "x" in the upper right corner to close out the screen. Geek Squad showed us that all we needed to do at that point was to hit the ESC (escape) key, which closed the pop up. He said we were the third customer he'd seen that morning with the same pop up. We mention it here, in case you might encounter a similar pop-up notification on your computer.
~ Randy & Jan Vaccaro
P.S.: We will now get back to putting together a .pdf with the 12-15 photos classmates have sent to us and get them posted on the Reunion Photos page. If you have photos you'd like to share, send them to us at the email address on the inside front cover of the 2023 Memory Book.
10/07/2023: The best laid plans offer no guarantees. We have somehow managed to acquire a virus on our laptop, so we will not be posting any Reunion photos this weekend. If you receive an email from us (our email address was published on the inside front cover of the Memory Book), please do not open it. We will post an update once we are rid of that virus. In the meantime, we will be working to change our passwords.
~ Randy & Jan Vaccaro
10/05/2023: Thanks, again, to all the classmates who donated to the 1973 Class Scholarship Fund. Our final total of funds raised, including the proceeds of the Silent Auction held at the Saturday night event, was $6136. At the Class Reunion Committee meeting on Monday, October 2, it was decided that a 1973 Class Scholarship in the amount of $1973 will be offered for Bradford seniors in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
We're sorry, but Website Admin attention has been diverted to projects for KBHSAA, so we have not had an opportunity to share the 10-12 photos we've received from classtmates. We hope to get back to that project this weekend. In the meantime, if you may have photos to share, send them to Randy & Jan Vaccaro at the email address published inside the front cover of the 2023 Memory Book. OR, call us and we will provide you with a cell# to which you can send photos via text.
09/26/2023: Class of '73 Reunion Recap. Our Friday night event at Kenosha Brewing Company was a fun event… lots of hugs, lively conversations and many photos taken, some of which were posted on the ’73 Class website’s What’s New page early Saturday morning. We also noticed several photos posted on the KBHSAA Facebook page, as well. If you have some nice photos to share, please do upload them on What’s New with captions or simply list the names of those pictured. As suggested by several classmates, we will have blank nametags available the next time we do a casual Icebreaker with no reservations required.
On Saturday, “The Main Event” kicked off at Stella’s Casa Capri, with cash bar and snacks, a Silent Auction to benefit the 1973 Class Scholarship Fund and a 50/50 Raffle. Debbie Landre, Claudia Nickerson and invited guest KBHSAA Treasurer Dulcie Schoff, circulated throughout the restaurant, selling Raffle tickets. We had a trivia contest and a questionnaire tucked into the envelope with the 2023 edition of the Class of ’73 Memory Book, which included a list of “missing” classmates for whom the Reunion Committee currently has no contact information. The Reunion Committee greatly appreciated Hondo’s decision to close the restaurant – except for take-out orders – in order to accommodate the more than 150 classmates who were in attendance.
Many classmates were intent on mingling and renewing friendships, while some spent time reading through the Memory Book. Classmates were drawn to the In Memory poster bearing photos of 98 classmates who are no longer with us; Peter Barca led a toast in their memory just before dinner was served. Reunion Committee members provided an array of desserts for the event. We send our thanks to Robert Cole for his donation to the ’73 Class Scholarship Fund and to Reunion Committee member Jeff Nevoraski for donating a Snap-on Gift Basket for the Silent Auction.
The Silent Auction brought in $1000 for the Scholarship Fund, which will send our total raised over the $6000 mark. The 50/50 Raffle raised over $600 total. The banquet room grew very quiet when Reunion Committee members Debbie Ruppa and Tony Lovetro teamed up to draw the winning Raffle Ticket and read the number. Several seconds ticked by before Peter Wicklund, husband of Susan Shemanske, stepped forward with the winning ticket, taking home $308.50. On Sunday morning, Susan hand delivered $158 to Reunion Committee Chairperson Randy Vaccaro, a donation from Peter to be used as “seed money” for our next reunion.
9/01/2023: At its meeting on August 14, the Reunion Committee made the difficult decision to move the photos stored in the former Photo Gallery into .pdf files, in order to compress the size of files stored on the 1973 Class website. The photos are in the original order, as uploaded and captioned by classmates, and you may access them on the Reunion Photos web page. You will need to scroll through the .pdf to view the individual photos. (As always, you must be logged in to view the photos.)
This project was undertaken in order to keep the ongoing yearly cost of operating the 1973 Class website affordable and free of (annoying) pop-up ads. It has freed up a good amount of data storage capacity: our website had been at nearly 95% capacity and it is now just under 59% capacity... so there is ample space for you to upload and share photos on your individual Classmate Profiles.
Today we are launching the Thanks to Our Advertisers! web page, bearing the business card ads purchased by our classmates for placement in the 2023 edition of the 1973 Class Memory Book, which also included ad placement on the '73 website. The ads may be renewed on an annual basis, starting in September 2024. Funds raised by ads placed on our website will be used to offset the cost of website operation.
09/07/2023: The final update for our Silent Auction has been posted here. We send our thanks to the following for their donations for the event:
08/29/2023: This morning we received a request to share the names of classmates signed up to attend the 50-Year Reunion "Main Event" on Saturday, September 16, at Stella's Casa Capri... you may view the list here (updated 09/02/2023). So get out your '73 Spy, browse through the the Senior Class photo section and get ready to renew old friendships for an enjoyable trip down memory lane.
Early this morning, we picked up a gift basket from Peter Barca for the '73 Scholarship Fund Silent Auction. We've updated the list of items going up for bid, and you may view it here.
We send thanks to Karen Roders Kostrewa and Mark McCarthy for donations to KBHSAA for the 1973 Class Scholarship. Total donations received by Class of 1973 and turned over to KBHSAA: $5636; of that dollar amount, $3163 is allocated for the '73 Class Scholarship; the remaining $2473 is allocated to specific scholarships, established by Kris & Larry Miller (please see update from 07/27/2023 for more details).
In other news, late last week we discussed our "Main Event" with Hondo at Casa Capri. Attendance for our event has grown to 153 people and has exceeded banquet hall capacity. Hondo has agreed to close the restaurant on Saturday night, so that our Reunion may occupy both the banquet hall and the restaurant!
Revised 08/05/2023: At its next meeting, the '73 Class Reunion Committee will discuss options for a possible website upgrade, as well as possible less costly alternatives. Under the current arrangement for website hosting, we are allotted 25MB of data storage. At one point last week, we exceeded that 25MB limit, so we relocated photos of the items going up for bid in our Class of '73 Scholarship Fund Silent Auction to a .pdf file, which is accessible here (just click to open it). Doing so brought our data storage down to 95% of capacity.
We send our thanks to Patrick McDonald, Berdell Briggs, Jim Wilson and Gary Christofferson for donations to the Class of '73 Scholarship. We apologize for our math error in the posting dated 07/27/2023: the total dollars allocated to the '73 Scholarship as of that date should have read $2920. With this latest round of donations, the funds turned over to KBHSAA for the '73 Scholarship is $3033. The generosity of our classmates is truly overwhelming!
In other news, we have reservations for 143 people to attend the 50-Year Reunion at Casa Capri... the response has been fantastic, and we are so looking forward to seeing everyone!
07/27/2023: Additional donations for the Class of 1973 Scholarship Fund arrived yesterday, bringing the total raised for KBHSAA Scholarships to $5393, with $2977 allocated to the '73 Scholarship. We send our thanks to the following for their monetary donations: Kris Winzer Miller and her husband, Larry (1971 Class), and another classmate who resides on the West Coast who would prefer to remain anonymous. We will be delivering the latest round of donations to KBHSAA this evening.
M/M Miller will be signing paperwork for (2) specific scholarships to be facilitated through KBHSAA: the one proposed in the challenge posted below in memory of Kris' dad (see our 07/05/2023 post below) and a second scholarship in honor and memory of Frank J. Germinaro ('66).
07/25/2023: Over the weekend, Steve Bishop hand delivered the following sports memorabilia for our Silent Auction: a limited-edition 1 of 100 framed print of legendary Chicago Bears #34 Walter Payton (signed); a signed photograph of Brewers #20 “Stormin” Gorman Thomas; and a plaque mounted with collectible cards of Packers All-Time Greats: #15 Bart Starr, #92 Reggie White, #84 Sterling Sharpe, Coach Vince Lombardi, #4 Brett Favre, #12 Aaron Rodgers, #5 Paul Hornung and #80 Donald Driver.
We received an email from Connie Clauer Jones with word she will not be able to attend the Reunion, but she will be sending (5) 1 lb. bags of Creekside Coffee Company whole coffee beans for the Silent Auction. She and her husband, David, own and operate Creekside Coffee Company out of their home in northern Wisconsin. Before we posted this update, we were looking at the intriguing variety of specialty grade fair trade organic coffee beans they roast in small batches. Please visit their website and see those varieties first hand… we plan to place an order later this week once we narrow down our “wow, that sounds delicious” list!
Brett Mandernack sent photos of the beautiful prints by his wife, Carole, which are being donated for our Silent Auction: the first piece is entitled “Ice Fishing on the Mighty Mississippi”; the second item is a trio of raptor drawings: Prairie Falcon on an Egg; Young Peregrine Falcon in a Pine Tree; and Red-Tailed Hawk Mantling (over a just-caught rabbit; the bird is Brett’s former hunting partner, and mantling means the bird is covering its valuable resource).
Susan Shemanske, who serves on the Reunion Committee, sent word she has put together a Milwaukee Brewers collectibles basket for the Silent Auction. It contains the following:
Since our last update, we have also received monetary donations from the following classmates for the Class of ’73 Scholarship Fund: Kim Czarnecki Lincoln, Denise Freitag Mosher, Michael Timme, Vince Ruffolo and Phil & Heidi Sturycz. Classmate response to this endeavor has exceeded the original fundraising goal of $1973: funds raised thus far total $2670! On behalf of the Reunion Committee, we thank you for your generous support.
Today we will email Kris Winzer Miller to confirm that our classmates rose to the challenge she and her husband, Larry, put forth! We will reach out to the KBHSAA Scholarship Committee to ask they contact Kris and Larry to complete the required paperwork for a specific scholarship in honor of Kris’ dad. If any other classmates may be interested in funding a specific scholarship in memory of a loved one, please visit the KBHSAA website for more information.
07/16/2023: More donations for the Class of 1973 Scholarship Fund arrived this week: we're now at $2,204 because our classmates have so generously supported our plan for giving a scholarship for a 2024 Bradford senior! On behalf of the Reunion Committee, we send our thanks to this latest group of classmates for their donations to KBHSAA for the '73 Class Scholarship: Rick Sadlon, Diana Tews Bierdz, Jared Kotz and Alan Faraca.
07/11/2023: If you have not yet sent your registration for the '73 Class 50-Year Reunion, please do so soon.
Donations for the Class of 1973 Scholarship Fund have grown substantially this week: we're now at $1805, and we are sending our thanks to these classmates for their generous support: Barbara Boness Miller, Jeff Nevoraski and Lori Lukawski Warrens.
As a reminder, if you are planning to attend the Reunion on Saturday night, the cost of the 2023 edition of the Memory Book is included in the price for the event (i.e., no need to send an additional $6 for a copy to be mailed to you). We send our thanks to the classmates who asked that we direct their overpayments for the Memory Book to the '73 Scholarship Fund: Dan Karajankovich & Debbie Nelson Karajankovich; Susan Shemanske; Jim Heiring; Carol Bashinsky Mohr; Jared Kotz; Rick Bolyard; Bob Redlin; Jeff Nevoraski; Earl Talbert & Diane Perri Talbert; Janet Gardiner Calhoun; Beth Hermann; Kathy Dosemagen Sepulveda; Chuck & Paula Weddel; and Don McNeil.
The Reunion Committee met last night to discuss a few details for the Reunion. There are currenty 117 planning to attend on Saturday night... we are looking forward to seeing everyone!
CHALLENGE FOR THE CLASS OF 1973!
07/05/2023: Over the holiday weekend, we received an email from Kris Winzer Miller, with a challenge for the Class of '73:
If our classmates can donate enough to reach the $1973 fundraising goal set by the Reunion Committee for the Class of '73 Scholarship, as noted in the recent Class of ’73 email, Larry and I will match that and donate $1973 for an additional scholarship.
Only one catch, we want the additional scholarship to go to a student going into the trades: carpentry, plumbing, hvac, welding, mason, bricklayer, electrician, construction worker, etc. We plan to name this additional scholarship the "Wilhelm Winzer Building Trades Scholarship" in honor of my dad, an immigrant from Croatia with a third grade education who became a skilled master carpenter. He was involved in building some of the most significant buildings in Kenosha, such as the original Kenosha Technical Institute, Palmer Wing of Kenosha Hospital, Carthage College, Siebert Chapel, UW Parkside and Pleasant Prairie Power Plant, in addition to many homes in Kenosha, southeast Wisconsin and Lake County, Illinois and many other projects.
I also asked a couple contractors that my dad worked for to see if they would be interested in funding some additional scholarships for the building trades. I will let you know what I find out.
Fellow classmates, are you up for this challenge? As of 07/05/2023, our Scholarship Fun has raised $1190. Let's make it happen! Make your check payable to KBHSAA and note 1973 Class Scholarship on the memo line, then mail it to:
BHS Class of '73
c/o Randy Vaccaro
2516 45th Avenue
Kenosha, WI 53144
We will record your donation and then turn it over to the KBHSAA Treasurer.
06/26/2023: The Bradford Alumni Association held its annual DAA Banquet & Silent Auction on June 17, an event that required a large amount time and effort. We send you belated wishes, hoping you enjoyed a Happy Father's Day.
After taking a week off, we are back to focusing on the '73 Class Reunion and have to do a bit of catching up. We're sending our thanks to Carol Bashinsky Mohr, Steven Leff, Judy Crow Bjorn, Louis Piehl, Michael Martino, Dennis Capozza, Rex Kellmann, Cindy Dalpaos and Dawn Perroni Genian for their generous support of the Bradford Class of 1973 Scholarship Fund. We have raised $950 thus far and are still hopeful we can meet our fundraising goal of $1973.
We've also received the following donations for our Silent Auction, to be held in conjunction with our Reunion event on Saturday, September 16 at Stella's Casa Capri:
Quick reminder... if you haven't yet sent in your reservation(s) for the Reunion, please do so this week in order to take advantage of the discounted reservation rate for those who mail their reservations by this Friday, June 30.
05/14/2023: Sending our thanks to Joe Ferraro, Susan Shemanske, Kathy Dosemagen Sepulveda and Diane Grzegorczyk Honaker for their generous support of the Bradford Class of 1973 Scholarship Fund. We have raised $455 thus far and hope to raise $1973 to fund a scholarship for a 2024 Bradford senior, which will be administered by the Bradford Alumni Association.
Reservations for the Reunion are arriving steadily, although we're a bit disappointed upon opening them to find some of our classmates have not included an update for the 2023 edition of the Class of 1973 Memory Book, even if it's just a few short sentences.
P.S.: Happy Mother's Day!
04/26/2023: Yesterday we received word of the first donation for the Silent Auction being held in conjunction with our 50th Reunion on Saturday, September 16: a lap quilt and coordinating pillow, created by Debbie Cody Landre. She chose fabrics in Bradford colors of red and black, combining them with gold to signify the 50-year anniversary of our graduation from BHS. Nicely done, Debbie! We can hardly wait to see an updated photo of the quilt once you get it back from the company doing the long-arm quilting.
We’ve also heard from Victoria Greibel Hessefort that she plans to donate a gift basket for the Silent Auction. Randy Vaccaro has donated a DuraClick Pen and Pencil set, crafted in his home workshop; it features Birdseye Maple hardwood with stainless steel knurled hardware in a gun metal finish that has kind of an industrial vibe.
We’ve set a goal of raising $1973 for the Class of 1973 Scholarship and thus far have raised $270. Classmates are encouraged to donate an item for the auction or via check payable to KBHSAA to be sent along with their Reunion Registration form. We send our thanks to the following classmates who have donated funds for the Scholarship: Jim Dorr, Peter Barca, Julieann Scherer Sinnen and Randy Vaccaro.
Proceeds from the Silent Auction will benefit the 1973 Class Scholarship, which will be administered by the Bradford Alumni Association (KBHSAA), an IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) organization, to be offered for a 2024 Bradford senior.
04/04/2023: This afternoon we emailed the BHS '73 Class Reunion Packets to 95 classmates; you may view the list of classmates to whom emails were sent here. We've only had 2 emails bounce back as undeliverable, and we've already moved those two names to our list for mailing labels. On Thursday morning, we will drop off the Reunion Packets being sent via "snail mail" at USPS Downtown. Watch your mailbox, kids!
The Reunion Packet includes a list of Classmates for whom we have no contact info whatsoever. If you are in touch with anyone on that list, we hope you will mention the upcoming 50-Year Reunion to them. Tomorrow morning, we will make the Reunion Packet materials available on our website.
03/10/2023: 50-Year Reunion Update!
Friday, September 15, 2023
6:00PM Ice Breaker at Kenosha Brewing Co. (4017 80th Street)
No reservations required for this event... show up and renew old friendships! Cash bar, and you may order food at your own expense off KBC’s menu… options include appetizers, salads & soup, sandwiches and entrees/tacos/pasta plus the Friday night AYCE special… and we noticed some interesting options on the KBC Beer Menu.
Saturday, September 16, 2023
Stella’s Casa Capri (2129 Birch Road)
5:00PM - 6:30PM Cash Bar / Snacks / Silent Auction
6:30PM - 8:30PM Buffet: Pizza, Chicken Wings, Salad and Homemade Desserts
Reservations required; mail your registration by 06/30/2023 to get the discounted rate!
Deadline to register: 07/31/2023
Note: Thanks to the Reunion Committee for their work on verifying classmate mailing and email addresses. We're sorry, but due to competing projects, we are estimating the Reunion Packets for our 50-year event will not go out until March 31.
09/09/2022: This morning we added a Classmates Not Registered page to the Class of '73 website. We hope those who are active on our website will take a look at those listed and, if you have contact information or an email address for any of them, please reach out to them with an invitation to join our website.
Please note, you must be logged in to your Classmate Profile in order to view the Classmates Not Registered page, as well as the In Memory page.
08/14/2022: Yesterday morning, we added Dave Wallen to the In Memory page and included his photo from the '73 Spy. He passed away in 2007, which was before the BHS Class of 1973 website was established. Unfortunately, we've not been able to locate a published obituary.
REUNION COMMITTEE REQUESTS YOUR ASSISTANCE
July 6, 2022: During the first 6 months of this year, we have seen the loss of several '73 classmates, all of whom have been added to our In Memory page. We added photos of most of those classmates who've passed, some photos from published obituaries and some from our Spy yearbooks.
The Reunion Committee will be looking ahead to organizing the 50th Reunion for the Class of 1973 to be held in 2023. We ask each classmate to keep us posted on changes to his/her mailing address, phone number(s) and email address. Thanks in advance for your help!
Hope you are well and living life to the fullest!
June 8, 2022: We just learned that John Cibrario, mathematics teacher and baseball coach for Bradford High School for more than 30 years, has passed away. He touched the lives of so many young people in his time at BHS. You can read his obituary here. Rest in peace, Mr. Cibrario.