First graduating class of St. Charles East to hold reunion

With the recent premiere of the Netflix show “Chicago Party Aunt” – the creation of St. Charles native and 2001 St. Charles East High School graduate Chris Witaske – the 2001 St. Charles East graduating class certainly has been in the spotlight lately.

His classmates voted him mostly likely to become famous, according to his classmate, Jane Kitick, who lives in St. Charles and owns Tuned Piano Services. She also is a member of the Vintage Swing Band.

“He would host our school assemblies, like homecoming and things like that and he would be like the MC for the events,” Kitick said.

The St. Charles East Class of 2001 – which is the first graduating class of St. Charles East – will have its 20-year reunion from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday at Pollyanna Brewing Company, 106 S. Riverside Ave. in downtown St. Charles. St. Charles High School was renamed St. Charles East High School following the opening of St. Charles North High School in 2000.

Witaske lives in Los Angeles but his family still resides in St. Charles. He was recently back in the area and threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Chicago Cubs game.

St. Charles East will also be celebrating its homecoming this weekend. A homecoming parade will take place at 1 p.m. Friday in downtown St. Charles.

The Class of 1981, which was the first class to attend all four years at the school, will also have its reunion this weekend.

Kitick moved back to St. Charles about 11 years ago.

“It’s a great place to raise a family and I love the history of St. Charles,” she said. ‘When you grow up here, you kind of have a pride for the community.”

Some of her former classmates also own their own businesses, such as Anthony Harrison, who owns a screen printing business in St. Charles called The Hairy Ant.

She has two children who are experiencing some of the same things she did growing up in St. Charles.

“My daughter plays softball with the St. Charles Softball Association at Langum Park, which is where I played softball growing up,” Kitick said.

The year she graduated from St. Charles East proved to be a notable year in many ways. During spring break in 2001, a serious black mold problem was discovered at St. Charles East.

Students went on an extended spring break. When they resumed classes, for the rest of the 2001 school year, St. Charles East students shared a split-schedule with St. Charles North.

East students attended class at the North campus during the morning, while North students went during the afternoon.

“It was kind of sad, because at that point, we had kind of grown close as a class and wanted to be at school and see each other for those last couple of months before we went our separate ways,” Kitick said.

She is honored to be part of the first graduating class of St. Charles East.

“I remember being upset when we first found out they were going to change our name because we felt we were still St. Charles High School,” Kitick said. “I feel like we had a lot of great classmates that came our of our class, like Chris is one of them. There were a lot of just really great people that went on to do some really successful things.”