Alumnotes, Summer 2014

A L UMNOT E S Summer 2014 Alumni Relations Director Jeff Beste ’87 Coordinator for Programming and Campus Events Charity (Patrick) Norman ’11 Coordinator for Communication and Regional Events Rita Heaton ’12 Alumni Council President Geoffrey Walker ‘82 Vice President Tisha (Tapp) Smith ‘01 Secretary Alison (Kearney) Clemans ‘10 Members Nick Awabdy ’94 Shawn Brennan ’99 Dave Dykema ’91 Lori Greenawalt ’84 Sandi (Welch) Harner ’64 Sarah Johnson ’07 Laura Keeley ’13 Philip Kirby ’05 Amy (Dennis) Lett ’09 Jeff Reep ’78 Latice (Strickland) Spann ’07 Jeff Summerlin ‘84 Keven Waiters ’78 MOVING FORWARD TOGETHER Alumni often tell me their friends say, “Don’t go to alumni events — all they do is ask for money!” I can tell you after more than six years as Director of Alumni Relations that we rarely ask for money at our alumni events. The purpose of these events is to help you stay connected to your Cedarville family. I never want pressure to give to keep people from coming to our events. However, it is important to realize that Cedarville does depend on gifts from our alumni! Every university asks its alumni for gifts to help keep costs down for students. If we received a quality education, if we made lifelong friends, and if we grew in our relationship with God at Cedarville … why wouldn’t we want to give back? On May 15, our alumni DID give back. In fact, they blew us away! As a University, we set a goal to ask 515 members of the Cedarville family to contribute $51,500 through a one-day social media campaign. Reaching this goal would attract an additional $25,000 match. By the end of the day, nearly 700 people gave more than $129,000. Wow! Thanks to everyone who gave. But it was interesting to get a few comments like these: I loved my time at Cedarville, but I don’t like being asked for cash all the time. What part of “2.7 GPA in broadcasting” makes it seem like I have any money? I know some in our class are still paying off their own student loans, let alone those alumni who graduated less than five years ago. Maybe it would be better to only “hard sell” alumni after their 15- or 20- year reunions. Or, maybe hard sell the premed and engineering students, but certainly us communications, education, and ministry majors just don’t have the extra money. Perhaps we have done a poor job communicating to our alumni about not only why but also how they can give. We will never ask you to jeopardize your family’s financial health for the sake of giving to the University. It has never been about giving thousands, or even hundreds, each year. If all of our alumni would give just $10 a year, that would be nearly $300,000 in gifts. This alone would increase current alumni giving substantially. If even half of us could commit to $10 a month, we could pump nearly $2 million into student scholarships every year. We know not everyone can give at the same level, and we know not everyone wants to give. But we don’t know who wants to give — or how much they are able to give — until we ask. Recently, my pastor, Craig Miller ’79, shared a post on giving to the church. The New Testament calls us to give regularly (Paul spoke of every first day of the week for the Corinthians), sacrificially (it should cost you something), proportionally (as the Lord gives you more, you can give more), and cheerfully (God loves this). Cedarville is not a church, and giving to Cedarville should never be a substitute for regular giving to your local church, but these are still helpful guidelines to consider. In the New Testament, giving is one of the measures of both spiritual vitality and genuine love and commitment to each other and the Lord. The overwhelming response to the 5/15 challenge could not have happened without all kinds of cheerful givers. If you haven’t yet, I invite you to give in honor of your favorite professor. Give to encourage an MIS team. Give to keep your academic program strong. Give to help a struggling student finish her degree. Visit cedarville.edu/giving to support anything you care about with a gift of any size. I look forward to seeing you in October for Homecoming 2014: We Are Jackets! Jeff Beste ’87 Director of Alumni Relations Did you get promoted? Direct a play? Publish your memoirs? Earn a degree? Receive an award? Climb every mountain? Ford every stream? Follow every rainbow ’til you found your dream? Visit cedarville.edu/magazine for deadlines and to learn how to submit your updates and photos. share your news