in 1994 a group of us decided that there should be a Bawden Reunion in Edmonton, hopefully held in 1995., which would give us a year. This group consisted of Ben and Carrie Fischer, Charlie and Dorothy Wills, Lois and Paul Jehn, Marcia McLeod ( late husband Bill had worked domestic and Internationally for Bawden for many years), Wendy Dougan and yours truly. We started our search for a venue that could accommodate the possible large number of people that may attend. In the beginning we contacted those we knew just to see what the interest would be and the majority were very interested. We wanted to have it in the summer of 1995, problem we would face was that this would also be wedding season so most large venues would soon be getting booked , the next problem and a much larger one was how many people would attend, how big of a venue did we actually need?. Keep in mind this was long before social media ,so we just started with a list of Bawden people that we could remember - Ben and Carrie had been with Peter Bawden almost from its beginning, had worked in Canada, Australia, Indonesia etc. and knew so many people. Problem number three was how do we find those who had worked throughout Bawden's world? We started with the addresses of those we knew, Fischer's, Will's, and Marcia McLeod had kept in touch with many of their Bawden friends around the world so that was the start - we sure could have used Facebook.. The question of how many people would be attending was impossible to answer - could be 100 - 1000. We decided on a facility that could accommodate 400. We then placed ads in every large city and small community newspaper throughout Canada. The people that responded were excited and got in touch with others. Word of mouth and a newspaper ad was the only social media we had and it was incredible how many people responded, they came from Australia, England, Singapore, Scotland USA, and across Canada. What a weekend it was.
The photo of a group sitting around a dining table is our reunion organization group getting together for dinner celebrating the success of the 1st Bawden Reunion.
In October 2000 another Bawden Reunion was organized, this time a group in Houston were hosting and held it in Galveston Texas. This reunion was also a lot of fun and for me it was just socializing, no worrying.
Bawden Drilling was definitely a Company to be celebrated, not only for our jobs and successes, but also the lifelong friends we've made and that carried into Noble Drilling.
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