Hello from Sunny Yellow Springs.

I guess as we speak the next chapter in Antioch history is continuing to be written.  with thousands of authors..and hopefully , thousands of gifts..

Yesterday  on 716 Xenia Avenue, the Big Gray House where the Alumni Association has taken refuge… we had a moment of fun while we fun-draised.   I wrote the largest check I have ever have written and it was, of course, from my final library pay check.   So ironically I have become the equivalent of a Horace Mann Donor as I went out the door of the Big Olive (Kettering Library)…..after 39 years…… As a person who really has never made much more than 80 dollars a day and put 10 in every day for gas…this was a little taxing.  So I asked some friends to come and have an impromptu moment of giving with me.  With a few calls using the little red YS phonebook (which lists families and even their pet’s names with phone numbers btw) and with Judith Wolert-Maldonado’s ‘05 email blast to a group of supportive villagers we had a dozen folks turn out for a YS News photo op.    We surrounded Sheri with checks, pledge forms and folks waving dollar bills. That was a fun and fast 7,000 dollars.   I am glad folks came..I hate cameras..so their company made it easier.    and Wendy Ernst who works in the office was on the street trying to make us smile like babies in a stroller …

More folks might have come but it was a last minute thing and many folks were also at a meeting downtown at the Emporium (at the UNDERDOG Cafe) working on outreach and recruiting for the Non-stop Liberal Arts Institute.

BTW there is now a fledgling website for the Institute!!  and a group of two hundred supporters on Facebook…..and other viral marketing…

Yesterday I was a little more nutz than usual..wondering whether folks and the YS NEWS would get there. (many moons ago when Ruth Churchill in the Testing Office analyzed my psychological profile she clucked and said..”Oh boy, you have an innate high anxiety level”) Ruth knew everything and I would bet you folks from the 60’s and 70’s can vouch for her.   She and later Katy were true escerpts about Institutional Reasearch and Evaluation. They just called the Testing Office because they tested the crap outta you.

Folks did come and it was a great blue sky and low humidity day….but I did not want to photo op to happen until Al Denman got there……he as well as having been the college pastor and wonderful teacher , mentor and marathon runner was also the very first person to see that the College needed to  have a governance system that would totally know about and nurture just the college……he was the father of Indpendence..so it meant alot to me for him to be in the picture….and Bob Baldwin ‘57 as well.

Thanks to those folks who made the IPM dash Eric Miller, Evelyn Lamers, Anne Whitaker, Juan Gregorek, Nevin Mercede, Steve Bognar, Donna and Al Denman, Steve Bognar, Ken Huber (The one man picket line) , Judith Wolert-Maldonado,  Bob Baldwin….and if I forgot someone well, my neurons are sizzling!

Hopefully with our collective Antiochian imagination we can collectively concot some fun-draising events in multiple venues. Beach or park picnics, art galleries, restaurants, group trips to concerts.

In YSO next week we will be having funb at the Farmer;’s market and a giant Community Potluck…….Ice cream socials anyone.

If you want to write some of the next chapter and have fun think about CHAPTERS in your area and well….be serenditous and have fun. I hear that folks in New England will be having a Div Dance of Sorts.

Stay in touch and be sure to have fun. Non stop fundraising for non stop and all the folks and things that we love.

Crazy Duffy ‘77

P.S.   Be sure to pass some gatorade and B vitamins around….and maybe have a spahgetti dinner….some of the ways to train from that marathon.

Camus is quiet and clover studded today you can hear the birds singing but also the sounds of digital security camera installation and Stanley Steamer cleaning up stuff for AEA.

also windows cracked open on the 2nd floor of McGregor……..ventilation? who knows.

BTW Thanks to Nina Myatt , 53 and retired urator of Antiochiana and endless warrior for the Big Olive…she planted a flower bed of pretty pink and purple petunias in the Library flower bed.     and has been shelving trucks and moping as a volunteer.

other blood, sweat and tears award today for Bob Devine….who has given much money and time and been a lightning rod like many of us.

and Finally the factoid of the Day..a question asked by Kim-Jenna Jurriaans ‘08 who is working on a book, I believe with Megan Rosenfeld ‘69…. who was the first female Maples’ Fire Chief…. answer Lorka Munoz  ’88

Take care out there……..and whadabou that next “CHAPTER”?

Last Modified : August 4th, 2008 Filed under : Updates Navigate : Previous post / Next post