Peshtigo High School Class of 1974 makes appearance on national TV

PESHTIGO – When Peshtigo High School’s class of 1974 gathered for a weekend celebration of their 50th class reunion, one classmate, Duane Sulk, reluctantly decided not to attend. As a Florida homeowner located only a short distance from the gulf, with hurricanes brewing, it seemed wiser to stay home.
Since he’s always been a big part of the entertainment planning for the classes’ reunions, his absence was going to be noticeable. But he put his creative mind to work, and came up with a plan to surprise his classmates in a very unique way.

Duane is a fan of the Sunday morning national “Today” show with Willie Geist. The show has a regular feature of people who send in unique photos of themselves using a special yellow coffee mug with the Sunday “Today” show’s logo on it. Often these reader submissions are photographed in interesting locations or on special occasions. A few chosen photos are shown at the end of each week’s show.

Duane arranged and paid for 53 mugs, one for each classmate, to be purchased with assistance from Robin (Dohr) Swiatnicki. He explained the show had never featured that many people using the mug at one time and he wanted the class to try and set the record. He also sent a thoughtful letter to be read to his classmates, expressing his disappointment at not being able to join them, but that he had a fun idea to get them featured on a national TV program.

The class then posed for a photo, with each of the classmates holding up their yellow gift mugs; and the photo was submitted to the program.

On Oct. 13, there was the class of 1974, on national TV and successfully setting the benchmark for the largest group “mugging” on the show. Not only was it fun to have a “moment of fame,” all the attending classmates have a nice memento of the reunion, courtesy of their absent classmate.

The class had 109 graduates but 13 have passed on. Of the remaining 96, 53 attended the weekend’s activities, along with their guests. Besides the dinner at Embers Saturday night, the class had an informal gathering Friday evening at one classmate’s farm, and some rode a “class of ‘74” float in the Historical Days parade.