Alpha 65th Reunion
October 3-6, 2024 
Duluth, MN 

Alpha 65th Reunion Weekend Slideshow

A summary of events:

• Thursday
  • A meet and greet was held Thursday night at the Blacklist Brewing Co. with alumni, actives and pledges attending
• Friday
  • A morning cribbage tournament at the Sheraton Hotel
  • A golf tournament at Enger golf course in the afternoon. 
  • In the evening there were era parties held at various locations.
• Saturday
  • The annual meeting was held at UMD in the Griggs Center on Saturday morning.
  • A catered lunch with a “Seven Wonders of Ancient Duluth” presentation by Al Fahden
  • China Wall in the afternoon.
  • The Reunion Banquet at the Kitchi Gammi Club in the evening 
    • Cocktail hour
    • Dinner
    • Silent auction end
    • Program with Al Fahden emcee
      • Words by Alumni president Jeff Gaylord and Active president Dylan Elliott
      • Recognition of the Founders, Hall of Famers, Blue and White Forever Donors, Reunion sponsors and Alpha Scholarship recipients
      • In Memoriam produced by Greg Hinds and narrated by Les Nelson
      • Sweetheart and Fraternity songs
    • Group Photo
    • Music and dancing with Tim McEvoy and his band
      

Video of the Banquet Program

• Sunday
  • Farewell brunch at the Sheraton Hotel

 

The Annual Meeting –  Griggs Center at UMD

• Status of the active chapter and introduction of the pledges attending by president Dylan Elliot
  • 7 actives
  • 5 pledges
  • Plan to pledge again in the spring
  • No one is graduating this year
  • Focused on academics and service
  • The actives have resolved a Title IX issue to not allow anyone to join the organization by securing a 501c3 status
  • 4 fraternities on campus and 5 sororities
• Alumni Association status presented by president Jeff Gaylord
  • • Focus was on the 65th reunion with a review of the upcoming events
    • The Scholarship Fund sits at about $280k
    • Difficulty with getting information on our scholarship fund with a new Development Officer
      • Infrequent updates on Fund status
      • No information on donors
      • No plaque updates
      • A number of approaches will be made to correct the situation
    • Greg Hinds reviewed the vast amount of work he has done to coordinate the photos collected over the years
      • He has used facial recognition software to log a member’s name to photos in the collection (~4000)
      • Greg is looking for a different site to store our photos because Amazon has changed its structure
      • He has prepared an In Memoriam for the banquet to be conducted by Les Nelson
    • Jason Golde presented the treasurer’s report
      
      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• After the meeting and a catered Chinese lunch, Al Fahden presented a nostalgia program of the things we did in Duluth during our times at UMD.  Click to play the video below.
  
  

  Seven Wonders of Ancient Duluth

  
  
  
• Special thanks for the reunion events go to president Jeff Gaylord for arranging events and conducting our meeting, and to the Reunion Committee and Actives
  • Al Fahden – Creative Planning
  • Jeff Gaylord – Marketing and Leadership
  • Jason Golde – Financial Planning
  • Jordan Herzog – Event App Planning
  • Jim Klang – Promotions and Recruiting
  • Greg Hinds – Artifacts and Photos
  • Tim McEvoy – Golf and Music
  • Ben Staub – Merchandise and Recruitment
  • John Erickson – Recruiting
  • Bryan Kirkes – Recruiting
  • Scott Schnuckle – Recruiting
  • Dave McMillan – Recruiting
  • Isaac Winter – Recruiting
  • Huck Andresen – Banquet Dinner Planning
     
• And a special thank you goes to John Erickson who recruited so many people to come to the reunion and unfortunately could not make it himself 

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Alpha Scholarship Banquet – April 20, 2024 in Duluth

This is a special occasion each year when scholarship recipients selected for their special accomplishments are honored and awarded their scholarships in a formal ceremony and social event open to Alphas and significant others.  The following members were selected this year:

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Ben Churchill singing “God Bless America” at Twins Game

(Need to Unmute)

 

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Michael Dean Memorial Service

Video of Mike Dean’s Memorial Service

 

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