A group of former Alameda elementary school students were recently included in the Guinness World Records for the “longest running class reunion.”

Eight former 1938 Sadler Elementary School students, now Franklin Elementary School, got together for an 83rd kindergarten reunion brunch at Ole’s Waffle Shop, on June 29, 2021, (“https://alamedasun.com/news/former-alameda-kindergarten-class-looks-join...,” March 15, 2022).

“We did it,” said Porter Davis, one of the 1938 Sadler kindergarten students who spearheaded the event, in an email to his fellow classmates. “Our 1938 Kindergarten, class reunion of 83 years, has been approved.”

Davis said the group’s attempt to get in the Guinness World Records book was denied three times and took more than a year to finally get approved.

Davis, a Korean War Veteran, said he was motivated to have the event after learning his fellow Sadler classmate Bobbie Hoepner’s husband died in 2019. Davis, who lives in Larkspur, was joined at the reunion by former classmates Hoepner, Bill Dowd, Noel Folsom, Allen Ames, John Rounds, Mike Wright, and Jacquie Lum, who traveled all the way from North Carolina. After the event, Davis and Hoepner were wondering what’s the Guinness World record for longest time between a class reunion. After a quick Google search, they learned it was 70 years and happened in 2001.

The 1929 class of Miss Blanche Miller's Kindergarten and Continuation School in Bluefield, W. Va., still holds the Guinness record for “longest elapsed time for a class reunion” — which happened in 1999. The 1938 Sadler Elementary class has the record for “longest running class reunion.”

Davis submitted the Guinness application in November 2021. To view the Guinness listing, visit www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/739161-longest-running-class-....