Bridgeton High School Class of 1976 plans 50th reunion in September

The Bridgeton High School Class of 1976 is lining up its 50th reunion for Saturday, Sept. 19, giving classmates a five-hour window, from 6 to 10 p.m., to return to South Jersey for an evening built around memory, milestones and long-running school ties. Tickets are $125 per person, with a $75 deposit due by May 30 and the remaining $50 due by July 1.

The reunion website identifies the event as the Bridgeton High School Bulldogs Class of ’76 50th Reunion and frames it as a chance to reconnect after half a century. The class says classmates have taken different paths since graduation, with some remaining near Bridgeton and others settling far away. The site also lays out a fuller class archive around the gathering, with sections for reunion news, sponsorships, memories, who is coming, resources, in memoriam and contact information.

That mix of logistics and reminiscence lands in a city with deep civic roots. Bridgeton is the county seat of Cumberland County and had 27,263 residents in the 2020 census, while Cumberland County had 154,152. Bridgeton High School serves students in grades 9 through 12, and Bridgeton Public Schools says the district’s mission is to prepare students for success through high expectations, positive interpersonal interactions and career exploration.

The reunion itself will be held at The Grove at Centerton in Pittsgrove, a venue that markets more than 15,000 square feet of renovated private event space and room for up to 700 guests. The property, formerly known as Centerton Country Club, has become a familiar South Jersey setting for weddings, graduations, anniversaries and reunions, which makes it a fitting backdrop for a class that has spent decades moving between Bridgeton and the wider region.

For Bridgeton alumni, the event is a chance to come back to a city that has stayed central in Cumberland County life even as classmates built careers and families elsewhere. For those who never left, the reunion underscores how a public high school class can remain part of a city’s social fabric long after the final bell, tying together neighborhood memory, school pride and the kind of hometown loyalty that still draws people home half a century later.