AUBURN - After 31 years of working closely with her colleagues at Herman Avenue Elementary School, Mary Ellen Ormiston, a former fifth-grade teacher, wondered what would happen after she retired.

Would she stay in touch with her friends?

Would they still get together and reminisce from time to time?

“I live 15 miles out of town,” Ormiston said. “So I knew that I wouldn't really run into most of these people just going to Wegmans everyday or anything.”

This inspired Ormiston to see if others were interested in setting aside a time for retired teachers and staff to get together - and making a point of staying in touch. This led to the creation of the annual picnic for retired teachers and staff, held twice a year on Martin Luther King Day and again in August at Hoopes Park.

“We've been doing this about 15 years, since I retired,” Ormiston, coordinator of the event, said Tuesday during the summer edition of the event. “We just wanted to have a time to get together and talk and I decided to reach out to other people and see what would happen if we had a day to get together.”

Since she got the ball rolling, Ormiston said the event has taken on a life of its own.

Ormiston said that generally she initiates the first few phone calls to let people know that it is time for the annual get-togethers. At this point there is a whole network of other retired teachers with their own call lists.

“Everybody kind of has their own groups they stay in contact with,” Ormiston said. “I make a few calls and then whoever I talk to says they have a certain group they usually call and it just goes from there.”

With a gentle breeze blowing and flowers in full late summer bloom, Hoopes Park made the ideal setting for a summer potluck picnic lunch and has served the gathering well these many years.

“It is a great place,” Ormiston said. “It is beautiful today and when it has rained, we can go right in under the porch and sit. It is the perfect spot for this - it is easy for everybody and it has worked out really well.”

Every summer, the gathering has a strong core of regular attendees.

Among them this year was Pat Messina, who for 34 years taught kindergarten and first grade at Herman Avenue.

“I'm always here,” Messina said. “It is nice to see each other and catch up and see what everyone else is doing and how they are doing.”

Messina said that she also has another reason to attend. Even since she retired, she is still active in the school, planting flowers at Hoopes Park with students. She said that along with seeing old friends, it gives her the opportunity to see the flowers in bloom.

Others, such as Nancy Ferrara, who taught third grade for 23 years, said it was also a time to reflect on the fond memories of their time at Herman Avenue, not only with fellow staff members, but also with the children they instructed.

Ferrara said there were numerous projects and field trips and memories the picnic brought to mind, but one jumped out immediately. She recalled taking her students to Hoopes Park at the end of the school year for a little quiet time to write haiku.

“There are so many memories,” Ferrara said. “The plays we did, the classes we taught. But bringing the students here. They were quiet and just used their senses and spent the afternoon writing haiku, it was really beautiful.”