SUNY Oswego - Alumni Association

May 2010 • Vol 6 No 2

‘Come Remember with Us’ at Reunion 2010

No matter how far away you live or how long it’s been, all your fondest college memories still live at Oswego.

Come remember with the Oswego Alumni Association at Reunion Weekend June 10 to 13 on campus and around town. Registration is open for on-campus lodging in our state-of-the-art residence halls and for dozens of events.

Come Remember with Us June 10-13 Early-bird pricing is available through May 21.

Whether it's the 50th, 25th or 10th class anniversary, all Lakers should find friends and fun when they come to reconnect, relax, reminisce and reunite.

Ed "Opie" Walch ’85 wanted to assemble Scales Hall alumni and fellow members of his 25th anniversary class, so he got involved with the volunteer Reunion Planning Committee.

“I would gather people together for all types of social functions while I was living there (in Scales),” he said. “I enjoyed it and I still enjoy it.”

As a shy freshman making the nervous journey from Long Island, his anxiety quickly dissipated after he was introduced to his hallmates on the first day.

“After the second day, I was in heaven and I knew it was going to be good,” said Walch, who became quite the extrovert during his four years of school and another four years of work with the college in Residence Life after graduation. “It really developed me into the person I am today.”

Everyone is welcome for Reunion Weekend, but special events are scheduled for certain milestone classes and groups. Several affinity groups have special get-togethers planned throughout the weekend.

Linda Panarites Sweeting ’75 said she has enjoyed reaching out to some of her sorority sisters and other Oswego friends as a fundraising volunteer for the 35th-anniversary group’s class gift. The Classes of 1974, ’75 and ’76 hope to raise $200,000 to support the Possibility Scholarship.

“It’s a good icebreaker,” for conversation with longtime friends who may have gone a long time without talking, Sweeting said. She hopes to attend some Phi Lambda Phi functions during Reunion Weekend.

Class volunteers are competing for the Reunion Giving Participation Cup. Gifts made by Reunion Weekend will be included in the final tally for the award.

In addition to special events for the classes of 1960, '85, and 2000 there are also activities planned for the classes of 1935, '40, '45, '50, '55, '65, '70, '74, '75, ’76, ’94,’95 and ’96. Group reunions include: Alpha Delta Eta (85th Anniversary), Alpha Sigma Chi, Arethusa, Blackfriars, Beta Tau Epsilon, Delta Chi Omega/TKE, Delta Kappa Kappa, Men's Football, Mu Beta Psi, Omega Delta Phi, Omicron Xi, Oneida Hall, Phi Lambda Phi, Pi Delta Chi, Psi Phi Gamma, Scales Hall, Sigma Gamma, Sigma Tau Chi and Theta Chi Rho.

New this year, share some of your favorite photographs of yore in our Flickr community and update them with fresh snapshots from Reunion Weekend. Attendees are also invited to tweet with us on Twitter. Just use #ozreunion in your tweets throughout the weekend.

In preparation of the college’s 150th birthday in 2011, the Oswego Alumni Association will be filming alumni stories throughout Reunion. Everyone is invited to participate in this very special opportunity to share their Oswego experiences. Drop a line to alumni@oswego.edu with Oswego 150 Film in the subject line.

Alumni registered for the "Come as You Were" barbecue dinner at Fallbrook Friday or "Memories on the Lake" dinner Saturday can stay on campus in the newly renovated and air-conditioned Johnson and Riggs halls (overflow housing will be in Hart Hall, which is not air-conditioned). The lake-view residence halls are within walking distance of many Reunion events and a continuous shuttle to downtown Oswego will run Friday and Saturday nights.

— Shane M. Liebler

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Oswego Alumni Association, Inc. • King Alumni Hall - SUNY Oswego • Oswego, NY 13126
315-312-2258 • 315-312-5570 (fax) • E-mail: alumni@oswego.edu • Web site: oswego.edu/alumni

Who doesn’t want to save the world? Michael Kite ’02 does that for a living through World Wildlife Fund.

As marketing specialist for one of the world’s leading conservation organizations, Kite and his team of three work to raise more than $5 million each year. The majority of that money comes from licensing partnerships and promotions with the likes of Barnes & Noble, Gap, Hewlett-Packard, Dial and Coinstar.

Retail partnerships help WWF spread its message to the general public and raise funds for its conservation work around the globe. For example, Bank of America contributes $100 for every special Visa account opened and Nabisco is supporting WWF’s “Year of the Tiger” initiative with special packaging and a $100,000 donation. The new CVS Green Bag Tag program rewards reusable bag-toting customers, and generates five cents for WWF for each tag sold.

All support WWF’s mission of protecting the future of nature, down to the finest details, Kite said.

“We like to see that the product is made from recycled material and is recyclable itself, and somehow ties into our mission,” Kite said. The Green Bag Tag, for instance, is made from a corn-based material and features a 100 percent recycled silicone lanyard.

As a broadcasting major at Oswego, Kite got involved with WRVO-FM and WNYO-FM.

“I think it gave me a lot more confidence in talking to people,” he said. It was an important part of his early career in broadcast sales and remains an important piece in the message he “sells” today.

“The best part of my job is seeing a product in the store with the WWF logo after months of working with a company to launch it,” said Kite, who joined the organization in 2006. “It’s rewarding to give people a fun, unique way to protect our planet.”

— Shane M. Liebler