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Students
and alums hang together
Photo by Bill
Petros
Spirits soar on the quad at Saturday’s Homecoming parade.
BY SHAUNNA
BENNETT
While the official theme for the second annual combined Homecoming
and Reunion 2002 was Passport to the World, it could as well have
been Passport to Your World, as visitors reentered the AU world
they once called home.
Planning and teamwork shared by the Office of Development, Athletics,
the Office of Campus Life, and the Student Confederation, as well
as all the colleges, made it all happen.
Registrations doubled from 1997, jumping from 287 to 600-plus this
year in keeping with the university’s bigger and better offerings.
The Redskins Band led the way for the 20 Homecoming floats. The
AU’s men’s soccer team defeated Adelphi 3-0, and the women’s
soccer team defeated Lehigh 2 to 0.
The 5K race, new this year, drew more than 350 entrants who ran
the course that started and finished at AU, looping throughout the
Spring Valley area. AU students Nick Banovetz ’03 and Christy
Ramstack ’03 worked for two years to bring the run to fruition,
and the profits will support Habitat for Humanity. Washington’s
International Spy Museum Tour attracted the curious. Children, many
with painted faces, beamed and clutched colorful balloon art as
they watched the Homecoming parade.
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Photo
by Jeff Watts
Comedian Richard Jeni entertains at Saturday’s Homecoming
and Reunion gala held at the Grand Hyatt Washington. |
The family-friendly
event “brought everyone in,” said Vanessa Peet, associate
director of Alumni Programs: Frederick Douglass scholars; sororities
and fraternities; alumni, some of whom caught up on news of their
schools at the Breakfasts with the Deans and Faculty program; and
the list goes on.
The All-American Barbecue in the tent on the quad, the Golden Eagle
luncheon with inductions of the class of ’52, and a Welcome
Back Bash in Woods-Brown Amphitheater, aglow with tiki torches and
offering a variety of cuisines, added to the festivities.
George Arnold, university archivist hosted AU Jeopardy, visitors
attended a Walking Tour of Georgetown, and others listened to author
Andrew Carroll read excerpts from his New York Times bestseller,
War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars.
ABC weather forecaster Tony Perkins ’81 welcomed Homecoming
and Reunion Gala revelers who were kept laughing by comedian Richard
Jeni, enjoyed the sounds of AU’s student a cappella group,
On a Sensual Note, and danced to soul, Motown, funk, disco, and
oldies by Raggs and the All Stars.
Then, as quickly as they’d convened, the Eagles flew amid echoes
of “Next year . . .”
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