J.P. Taravella alums reunite for their 40th reunion. {courtesy}
By Bryan Boggiano
J.P. Taravella High School’s first graduating seniors celebrated their 40-year reunion on Friday with multiple surprises and special guests.
Taravella’s first graduates celebrated the occasion at the Jacaranda Country Club in Plantation. The original graduates enjoyed a drumline and a welcome from cheerleaders, JROTC, and football players.
The alums even crowned a king and queen of the reunion. They chose the school’s first principal, Beverly Boothe, as queen, and the inaugural guidance director, Terry Place, received the honors.
Boothe traveled from Central Florida, while Place came from South Carolina to reunite with their former students.
“Forty years ago, these students departed from having made JPT the magical place that it was…,” Boothe wrote on Facebook. “I love each of them and appreciate what they have given and brought.”
There was also a memorabilia raffle, and everybody joined arm in arm to dance to “Piano Man” by Billy Joel, a tradition started by former principal Shawn Cerra.
Jody Gaver, the school’s former guidance director, planned the reunion alongside Lisa Nockowitz Hutcherson, Wendy Willis Berk, and Dina Abolafia DiSarno.
“Our goal of making sure everyone felt included came to fruition,” Gaver said.
J.P. Taravella reunion king and Queen. {Jody Gaver}
Gaver remembers starting at J.P. Taravella in 1981. It opened to alleviate crowding occurring at Coral Springs High School.
At that time, the school did not have a senior class. There were only about 2,100 freshmen, sophomores and juniors. However, that did not stop Taravella from winning the first annual Mayor’s Cup.
After graduating in 1983, Gaver’s career path took her back to Taravella, where she had Place’s office. Both of her children graduated from the school.
Now, forty years later, Gaver says under Principal Mary DeArmis, the school is still amazing and will continue to flourish.
DeArmis, alongside Assistant Principal Debra Johnson and Athletic Director Kristin Zaneleone, sent a bus of students to the reunion to make the original graduates feel welcome.
Gaver said the reunion is another memory in her collection of special moments at Taravella.
She said, “I was blessed to graduate from JPT, become the guidance director at JPT, and also have both of my children graduate from this wonderful institution, so I bleed silver and blue and always will.”
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