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40th |
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1974 |
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Class Officers Christopher Gates Vice Presidents Treasurer J. Rick Sample Secretary Thomas Ludlow Peter DeNatale A. Leonard Smith Head Agents Stephen Geanocopoulos Alunni Council Representative and Special Projects Reunion Chairs Executive
Committee Mike Miller |
October 2010 Dear Classmates - In 2014, our class will celebrate its fortieth year since the
warm June day when we gathered at the south end of the Green, and made our
last walk toward Baker as Dartmouth students. Considering that milestone,
members of our class Executive Committee and your class officers began
discussions this spring that morphed into a conversation about the
opportunity and the challenge of making a class gift to Dartmouth. Other classes have made class gifts of various types and
sizes, and the College publishes an evergreen list of recommendations for
those who might be interested. Our deliberations over the idea of a gift from
the class of 1974 took on a bit of the character of a 'random walk' as we
looked for something that would provide something of value for the College
and that would have a real connection to the experience of today's Dartmouth
students. With an enthusiastic recommendation and promise of leadership from
Jim ÒPork RollÓ Taylor, we think we have found an opportunity for a class
gift as audacious in scope as it is compelling in its purpose. Together with my fellow class officers and the members of the
Executive Committee, we present this idea to you with the unanimous 27-0
endorsement of those participating in our teleconferences this summer -- and
with our strong encouragement for your support: As its gift to Dartmouth on the occasion of our fortieth
reunion, the Class of 1974 will fund the construction of a much-needed new
bunkhouse at the College's Moosilauke Ravine Lodge complex. The target date
for having funds in hand will be late summer 2013. Members of the class who
are interested and in a position to do so will be invited to participate
directly in the construction of this bunkhouse, working side-by-side with New
England timber-frame craftsmen, Dartmouth undergraduates and other members of
the extended Dartmouth Outing Club community, in two construction phases, one
in the fall of 2013, the other in the spring of 2014, prior to our planned
2014 reunion. The fundraising target: $150,000, between now and late summer 2013. It is
certainly audacious. But is it compelling? How does a Òcabin-in-the-woodsÓ
rank among the priorities for Dartmouth College? At first blush, a campaign to fund and build a bunkhouse at
Moosilauke may sound a bit odd. The replacement need is real enough. The
various Moosilauke structures date back between 50 to more than 70 years. The
Moosilauke Ravine Lodge and its assorted bunkhouses
have received increasing use over the years by those seeking a more rustic
encounter with northern New England. Over the past 20 years the structure of
the Lodge itself has been modified from what we would remember to handle the
increased level of use, but the bunkhouses have gradually moved from aging to
deterioration, and structural and fire safety issues loom in the future. Dan
Nelson Õ75, who heads Dartmouth Outdoor Programs, calls new, well-designed
and structurally sound bunkhouses at Moosilauke DOPÕs Ôhighest priorityÕ. But what makes a difference about the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge
complex, and the idea of a gift from our class to replace one of the four
bunkhouses, is the role that Moosilauke has come to play in the Dartmouth
student experience, beyond even what we would recall. Those of us who may
have had a son or daughter attend Dartmouth, or who have known a Dartmouth
student, may understand this. In the years since we attended Dartmouth, the
Freshman class trip experience has evolved from an option in which many
participate, to an encounter with Dartmouth's traditions and with the
diversity of its student population that now includes over 95 percent
of entering freshmen. Let me tell a story. A few years ago, I attended a Class Officer's Weekend,
scheduled in September just before classes began, and on the agenda for the
returning Class Officers was a dinner in the Bema with incoming Freshmen - to
the best of my recollection, with something like two alumni Class Officers
and 6 or 7 Freshmen per table. My table included new students from a geographic
arc that ran from Kingston, Jamaica to Anchorage, Alaska - the Dartmouth of
the 21st Century. All had just returned from their Freshman trips, from
hiking Moosilauke, and from singing songs and first meetings with new
classmates at the Ravine Lodge. From the trails and the vistas and the
starlit nights where they first experienced the silence of the Òstill NorthÓ
and the echoes of the Òhill-windsÓ. I remember the words of a young woman from near Philadelphia,
a member of that incoming class. She said that all the other colleges to
which she had applied were in urban areas. This was what she knew. Her
guidance counselor had suggested she include Dartmouth because of - if I'm
remembering correctly - its strong Economics Department. She'd seen the campus,
once. That April the fat acceptance letters had descended on her, and as the
deadline approached, she mysteriously found herself electing Dartmouth from
among other good choices. Then she came to campus, dumped her stuff in a dorm room, and
bounced out of town somewhere in a bus to paddle in a canoe for a couple of
days, swat mosquitoes, and get charcoal and ash all over herself trying to
figure out how to cook over a campfire. Then Moosilauke, then Ravine Lodge,
and meeting President Wright in a food line, who was just a guy in dockers and a golf shirt. And meeting new friends. She
concluded her monologue looking at the rest of the table: "And I found myself wondering, where has this place been
all my life?" Almost every college or university talks about community and
diversity. Diversity and community. If you've wandered any website with
an 'edu' domain name, you've seen these two words
in some font, size 32, with the accompanying picture of happy faces you still
find on boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Everyone preaches - or is it sells?
- diversity and community. Dartmouth tries to do something to form
community out of diversity. Gather up the incoming freshmen, distribute them
into groups of six or so, let them play in the woods for a couple of days and
nights, get dirty and earn a few blisters, learn who can cook and who can't,
learn who may need help and who can offer it, learn how to get along on the
trail where nobody's GPA matters quite as much. Then gather them back to a
place somewhere north of campus, to a big lodge and assorted outbuildings,
where the logs are redolent of decades of cooksmoke,
where the mattresses are lumpy, where the President is a guy in the food
line, and where the introduction to your fellow future doctors, lawyers,
educators, finance whizzes, inventors, authors and non-profit founders begins
as summer camp. Relatively speaking, few of these Freshmen join the Dartmouth
Outing Club. Some may never again spend a night in a lodging unless it's a
place where the housekeeping staff fold corners in the last hanging square of
toilet paper. But with the trip to Moosilauke, they have entered the
experience called ÒDartmouthÓ. For the vast majority of them, because
of that first encounter at Moosilauke, whenever they hear or sing Dartmouth's
alma mater, they will have pictures to accompany the words. Your class officers and class Executive Committee are
presenting this project to you because we believe it accomplishes both of our
objectives – value for the College and importance to the student
experience. A new Class of 1974
Bunkhouse at Moosilauke will meet College and student needs at the place
where now over 95 percent of entering Freshmen - whatever their origin,
whatever their major may come to be - begin their encounter with their own
Dartmouth experience. That's why we present the challenge and the opportunity of
this idea to you, and why we invite your participation. The accompanying
response card will offer some further details, and ways in which you can
participate. I support this project. Notes from recent graduates who are
sons and daughters of our class - including my goddaughter - testify that
this is still the case. The fundraising goal for this project is significant.
We recognize that ability to give, and personal priorities for giving, will
vary from person to person in our class for honest and valid reasons. We can
only ask that you consider this proposal, and the opportunity it presents for
our class and may present for you to make a contribution to the college
freshman experience that is unique to Dartmouth. In the church tradition to which Catherine and I belong, when
a congregation launches a stewardship campaign, it is customary for the
person who first presents the program to speak to his or her personal
commitment to it. Well, all right then; I'll start. I am pledging to
contribute one percent of our fundraising goal for this project over the next
three years. That's my promise. Think of it this way: now we don't have to
raise 100% of the needed funds – just 99 percent. Several other
classmates are making a similar pledge – so that takes the percentage
even lower. We hope to start this ball rolling so that future pledges and
contributions of whatever size may keep it rolling to the day in the fall of
2013 when the sounds of our saws and hammers can break the silence of the
woods of Moosilauke Ravine, when we begin building. An average of just
$100/year/classmate will exceed our target and leave some for future
maintenance. We believe that this project presents an exciting opportunity
for our class. In the summer of 2014 when we return to Hanover for our 40th
reunion, we have the opportunity to see the numerals Ò1974Ó above a doorway
in a place where men and women of Dartmouth will begin their encounter with
the community we share for many years to come. Let's do this. Thank you for listening. Rick Richard
Ranger President and
Newsletter Editor |
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