Wednesday June 3, 2009 - Registration Eve

Time to get the boxes out of the warehouse and to our North Campus Town Houses. Loading and unloading was performed by our five student clerks and by Reunion volunteers extraordinaire Karen Mineo and Jordan Schell-Lambert. Thank you Karen and Jordan for working at headquarters from set-up to check-out.

Thank you Micah Clark ‘10, Darnnel Lahens ’11, Michael McDermott ‘09, Liz Rapoport ‘09, and Erica Southerland ’10 – our student clerks. Alumni House years ago decided that Reunion chairs should be able to attend and participate in Reunion activities rather than spend the entire weekend staffing the registration table. These five clerks enabled Larry and me to have an enjoyable Reunion too. Having gotten to know all of them, I have no doubt, that my alma mater is still producing incredible, ambitious, hard-working, and creative graduates.

Thursday June 4, 2009 - Registration Day

Balloons were blown up, posters printed and distributed, banners hung, computers booted, welcome bags filled – we were ready for the onslaught of classmates. Eight of us (classmates and spouses) began Reunion weekend by helping with preparation for Thursday dinner at Loaves and Fishes, an Ithaca food ministry of St. John's Episcopal Church.

Back at HQ, one of the first to register was Jeff Weiss, our class president-elect. Jeff was going to be busy over the next 24 hours as he was the driving force behind our class World Affairs Forum: An Abrahamic Dialogue. He welcomed and got our special guests Bishop John Crane, Professor Faizan Haq, and Rabbi Bruce Lustig settled at the Statler and then escorted them and Professor Ross Brann across Campus Road to the Duffield Hall atrium for our first Class event – the welcome wine tasting and dinner.

The wine and food were excellent and the spacious atrium was conducive for the mingling and reconnecting of classmates. Thank you Ginger So for being our class catering director. The meals were great from Thursday’s welcome dinner to Sunday’s farewell brunch. Dealing with three different caterers, a tight budget and RSVP numbers that changed by the hour (and increased by 15% during the last few days) was a challenge few could successfully deal with. Many times I said, “Thank God for Ginger.”