{"id":305,"date":"2010-04-21T15:53:46","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T15:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hub-dev.bates.edu\/magazine\/?page_id=305"},"modified":"2017-09-06T11:38:39","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T15:38:39","slug":"connections","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/back-issues\/y2008\/summer08\/departments\/connections\/","title":{"rendered":"Connections"},"content":{"rendered":"

WALK THE WALK \u2014 Alumni Walk gets a shakedown cruise<\/strong><\/p>\n

As winter\u2019s snowpiles grudgingly melted last spring, students tentatively took to Alumni Walk, finding sunny nooks and apt open spaces for Frisbee tossing.<\/p>\n

But the new space, stretching from College Street to the new dining Commons, didn\u2019t get its first real workout until\u00a0Reunion<\/a> \u2014 June 7, 2008,\u00a0at 11:24 a.m. to be exact\u00a0\u2014 when 100-year-old Al Webber \u201928 led the 2008 Alumni Parade down Alumni Walk.<\/p>\n

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\nThe Alumni Parade moves down Alumni Walk for the first time. Photograph by H. Jay Burns.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The parade concluded near Garcelon Field, where alumni gathered to bestow service awards on\u00a0Robert \u201950 and Gladys Bovino Dunn \u201951<\/a> and on\u00a0Jason \u201995 and Deborah Nowak Verner \u201995<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After a picnic lunch, the walk was dedicated during a street fair featuring jugglers, a steelpan band, and dessert. Jack Keigwin \u201959, lead project donor with his family, reflected on the ebullient scene. “Taking in this sight \u2014 it\u2019s exactly what we had hoped to accomplish,” he said.<\/p>\n

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Alumni Walk donors Jack \u201959 and Beverly Keigwin P\u201986, following the ribbon-cutting ceremony, take a symbolic first stroll.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As alums and their families embraced the new physical space, Keigwin talked about the College\u2019s embrace of its alumni. “Alumni are the soul of Bates,” he said. “You have always honored Bates with your advocacy and support. Today, this place honors you.”<\/p>\n\n\t\t