Get Involved

We’ve built something rare and wonderful here—eight generations of Glackins, gathering nearly every year since 1930. As of 2025, we've held 90 reunions, and we’re not slowing down. Our future looks bright, but it depends on family like you stepping up, pitching in, and keeping the tradition going strong. Whether you’ve got a whole weekend to give or just a few hours a year, there’s a place for you to help. Big jobs, small tasks—every bit matters, and we’d love to have you be part of it.

How can you help?

Click a link below to jump to a section, or simply scroll through the page to explore all the ways you can get involved. There’s something for everyone—no matter your skills, schedule, or surname!

Reunion Officers

From the very beginning, our reunion has been kept running by a dedicated crew of family officers. Our very first president, Caroline Regina Sweeney Glackin (married to Charles Reed), was elected at the inaugural reunion in 1930 and served faithfully until her passing. Since then, every year’s reunion has been guided by a team of volunteers who make sure we have the funds, the food, and the fun to keep the tradition alive.

These roles are part history-keeper, part event-planner, part chaos-wrangler — and we’re always looking for folks willing to pick up the baton (or at least a clipboard).

  • President & Vice President
    Keep the meeting running smoothly, help make decisions, and generally make sure things don’t go entirely off the rails.

  • Secretary
    Records the meeting minutes and helps keep track of births, deaths, marriages, and family milestones so we don’t lose track of who’s who and what’s what.

  • Treasurer
    Manages the money — from raffle tickets, donations, and memorabilia sales to hall rentals and reunion grub. (Yes, someone does have to figure out how many hot dogs we’ll need.)

Interested in serving? Send us an email or raise your hand at the next reunion.
Expected time commitment: About 4 hours during the reunion, plus a few emails throughout the year to help coordinate next year’s plans.

Family Tree Committee

Now forming – and you’re invited!

Our family tree is already sprouting some impressive branches — traced as far back as the mid-1700s — but there’s still plenty of room to grow. We’re in the early stages of building a Family Tree Committee to help bring this history to life in a way everyone can enjoy (and maybe even understand without a magnifying glass and a headache).

Right now, Jesse (our current secretary) is hard at work digitizing our existing records. Lauren (our historian) is helping scan old family photos and dreaming up ways to display everything online — a website, a wiki, a living family archive… we’re still figuring that part out. A few cousins have offered to lend a hand, but we’d love even more helpers!

Ways you can get involved:

  • Join the committee. You don’t need to be a tech wizard or genealogy expert — just willing to pitch in. We’re looking for folks to:
    • Help digitize old records
    • Dig into online research (Ancestry, FamilySearch, etc.)
    • Help organize, label, and connect the dots between names, dates, and places
    • Provide moral support when we run into six cousins named John
  • Share what you’ve got. Already done some family research? Have dusty binders full of paperwork? A partial family tree in a drawer somewhere? We’d love to see it! We’re especially interested in:
    • Birth, adoption, and baptism records
    • Immigration papers
    • Marriage certificates
    • Military records
    • Gravestone photos or burial info
    • Any notes, scribbles, or “I think this might be your great-uncle’s second wife” type mysteries

Whether you can help regularly or only now and then, we’d be thrilled to have you. Every bit of info, every extra pair of eyes, and every hour spent squinting at old handwriting helps move this project forward.

Interested? Curious? Got something to share?
Email us at familystories@theglackinclan.com. No pressure, no minimum time required — just a chance to help build something meaningful together. And let’s be honest: if you’ve always wanted to solve a family mystery and show off your spreadsheet skills, this might be your moment.

Historical Record & Photo Gathering

Our family has a rich and beautiful history — and we want to preserve it for generations to come. Our historian is always looking for materials that help tell our story: records, photos, documents, and personal items that bring our past to life.

Whether you have something small or a whole box of memories, we'd love to hear from you. If there’s a shoebox of old papers tucked in a closet, a photo album gathering dust, or a story that’s only ever been told around the dinner table — now’s the time to share it. Don’t worry if things aren’t labeled or organized. If it looks like “something the family might want someday,” we probably do. Consider this your official invitation to dig through those mysterious bins, call that one relative who definitely knows more than they let on, or finally rescue those photos from behind the cereal boxes. You never know what piece of the puzzle you might be holding!

Some examples of what we’re looking for:

  • Family records: Birth, marriage, death, and military records (these also help with the Family Tree project!)
  • Old family photos: Fully labeled photos are wonderful — but if you only know a few names or none at all, that's okay! We can often identify people with help from the wider family.
  • Military service details: Names, dates, branches, regiments, wars or battles, and any personal stories or photos in uniform.
  • Property information: Photos of family homes, purchase papers, financial statements, or anything tied to a family property.
  • Family stories, legends, and oral history
    These are the things that truly bring our ancestors to life — stories passed down at reunions or whispered at kitchen tables. Funny tales, dramatic rumors, family “truths” (whether or not they’re technically true) — we want it all. And we’re not just looking for stories about great-great-grandparents! We want to capture memories now — about your parents, your siblings, your kids, your cousin who once tried to deep-fry a turkey indoors (you know the one). If it’s already written down, great! If not, we’d love to help capture it — by email, phone, video chat, or even sitting down with a cup of tea and a notebook.
    ​Trust us: it’s a lot easier to save a story now than it will be in 40 years when someone’s trying to remember if it was Uncle Ray or Uncle Roy who outran a bear on a fishing trip.

How can you share? However works best for you!

  • Have digital files? Email us scans, photos, videos, or typed-up stories — anything you’ve already got on your computer or phone.
  • Have physical items you’re ready to pass on? We’d be honored to preserve them in the family archive. Let us know and we’ll arrange a safe handoff.
  • Want to keep the originals? No problem! We can help digitize items like family bibles, letters, or documents — either through high-quality photos, scans, or typed transcriptions. If you need help with that process, we can meet up and assist.

Got something to share — or just a question?
Please reach out to familystories@theglackinclan.com. We’d love to hear from you!

More Ways to Get Involved

We’ve got a solid crew keeping the reunion wheels turning—but there’s always room for more hands, hearts, and talents. Whether you’re tech-savvy, craft-inclined, good with kids, or just full of great ideas, there’s a place for you here. Don’t see something that’s exactly your skillset? Reach out anyway—we’ll find a way to put you to good use!

  • Reunion Photographer (or Videographer)
    Each year, a few family members kindly snap candids or tackle the big group photo during our milestone "Big 5" reunions. But we’d love more folks behind the lens—taking portraits, capturing the little moments, or even putting together a highlight reel. Whether you're wielding a smartphone or a fancy DSLR, your shots help keep the memories alive.
  • Creative Helpers & Design Volunteers
    Are you a bit artsy? Good with design? We have a CafePress shop with some classic reunion t-shirts, but we’d love to add more! Help us dream up new shirt designs, mugs, ornaments, tote bags, or anything else fun (and fund-raising). Even better if you can help us order a few of them in bulk to sell in person at the reunion!
  • Website Design & Development
    Our little corner of the internet is getting a facelift (hello, WordPress), and we could use help making it shine. If you know your way around plugins, pages, or pixels—or just want to help brainstorm features—we’d love to have you on board. Bonus points if you know how to keep the family historian from accidentally breaking the layout. Again.
  • Activity & Game Coordinator
    Do you have a talent for fun? We’re always looking to level up the reunion experience. We’ve got the classic children’s games, and we’re adding more for adults too—think bingo, trivia, maybe even reviving the talent show! If you’re brimming with ideas or just love organizing things, come help make the reunion even more memorable.
  • Memory Collectors & Oral History Interviewers
    Not everyone wants to sit down and write out their life story—but they will tell you everything if you just ask (especially if there’s pie involved). We’re looking for folks who can help gather oral histories, whether by recording audio, writing down quotes, or just sitting down with a relative and having a good old-fashioned chat.
  • Gravestone Project (Looking for a Lead!)
    We’d love to restore and document older gravestones—and possibly replace some that have weathered past recognition. If you have experience with historical preservation or cemetery documentation, or just want to help us honor the lives behind the names, we’re looking for someone to head up this effort.
  • Got Other Ideas?
    Got a special skill? A burning idea? Want to run a family recipe contest, start a newsletter, or print custom reunion crossword puzzles? (Yes please.) If there’s something you’re excited about, let us know—we’re always open to creative ways to keep our reunion vibrant, meaningful, and fun.

I'm ready to volunteer!