April 21, 2016

Regional Alumni Clubs: A thank-a-thon for our alumni veterans

The approximately 1,000 PC alumni who are military veterans received a bonus of sorts last Veterans Day — phone calls thanking them for their service to our nation.

Alumni veterans phone calls phone room Veterans Day
Aliza Anderson ’17 conveys gratitude to an alumnus.

Thirty members of the Student Alumni Association and 16 cadets in the College’s Army ROTC Patriot Battalion made personal calls to the veterans on Nov. 11. The outreach was a collaboration between the Office of Alumni Relations and the Department of Military Science.

Organizers and student callers shared heartwarming stories and words of appreciation from many of the alums and/or their spouses. One alumnus kept a student on the phone for more than 15 minutes, referencing Bible verses that reflected his undergraduate days. Another alum, who had a birthday the following day, referred to the call as “an early birthday present.”

Several family members who took the call for veterans who were unavailable expressed delight that the College would honor its alumni in such a way.

“We watched the students light up whenever the line was picked up, and I can imagine the veterans were wearing matching smiles on the other end,” said Michelle Grupinski ’12 & ’14G, coordinator of alumni relations, who assisted Patrick R. Walker, assistant director of alumni relations, in arranging the phone-a-thon.