The founders of the original Boaz Island Nursery School (BINS) are looking to reunite with some of their old students.The idea is to share some of their happy memories from the 1970s and 1980s. A reunion is being organised for later this month by former teacher, Kathleen (Kae) Foggo, who now lives in Florida.The nursery school opened on January 4, 1974 registration took place out of the boot of her car. “I had returned to Bermuda in October of the previous year and needed a job teaching but there were no jobs available in the school system,” said Ms Foggo. “So I started out working for the Post Office after bugging the postal department every day for a job.“I tried the banks, and was asked why I would work as a teller when they didn’t make as much as a teacher. Well, when you are broke who cares where you work, just as long as you are gainfully employed.”Her break into teaching came when she was asked to clean up and open the old Boaz Island Elementary School. The school opened its doors to 20 students from the surrounding area with the help of Wilimae Wilson.Ms Foggo believed that students needed to participate in an open, learning environment, which she had studied while teaching and directing a preschool in Boston before returning to Bermuda.It allowed students to enjoy the normal variety of activities as well as educational field trips on a regular basis.“Many a day would find us walking the students to the Watford Bridge ferry stop singing as they walked, to take away the fact that it was a long walk for three- to four-year-olds,” said Ms Foggo. “One of my students reminded me some years later that they will always remember the study of the seasons when they got to play in ‘snow’ during the study of winter.“We had saved the ice from an old refrigerator for months for that lesson.”The school year was punctuated with plays, fairs, concerts, walks and Tom Thumb weddings. “Ron Lightbourne, whose son Jonathan attended the nursery, was the backbone of the music for the concerts,” said Ms Foggo. “He would come running into the school, sit at the piano and play songs that he had running around in his head ... words only, but in no time flat he’d have the music to go with the words or vice versa.“The songs sort of stuck in most of our heads for years. On one very recent occasion Ron told me that he was visiting the Crystal Caves and a young man started to sing ‘Tell me a bedtime story’. Ron’s head began to spin because he knew that this young man had to have been a part of BINS. Upon questioning, the young man admitted that he was a part of the extended family of BINS. He was my son Lenny, who never attended BINS but loved the song after hearing it being sung so many times in our home.”The reunion is scheduled for Friday, June 17 and Saturday, June 18. Ms Foggo would love to see as many of her students as possible.Former students are invited to bring any pictures or other memorabilia. For more information contact telephone 386-427-1895, 292-4121 or 234-2063. Alternatively, send an e-mail: kfoggo[AT]yahoo.com.