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{Homecoming}
PL ANTING MEMORIES Alumni Make Time “For the Trees” by John Hartnett, SF83
teri thomson randall
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campus has lost over a thousand trees to drought and devastation from the pine bark beetle. In the immediate campus vicinity, the college has lost over 150 trees. Replanting lost trees and tending to healthy ones is an urgent project for reasons other than preserving the beauty of the campus—the college is keenly aware of the need to head off future fire hazards and to work to prevent soil erosion. About 15 alumni and five current students spent a day tending to healthy trees that had been reseeded in the spring. Marni Hamilton (SF05) was one of the students working outdoors with alumni. “Interacting with the alumni made me think about my class and where all of us are going,” she says. “It made me think about life after St. John’s.” teri thomson randall
ost college reunions are for trading snapshots, bragging about children’s accomplishments, and comparing hairlines and waistlines, but for the nearly 200 Johnnies who came to Santa Fe for Homecoming July 1-3, this gathering was for the trees—the fragrant and elegant piñon trees that help define the Santa Fe landscape. The weekend theme was “For the Trees.” In addition to the usual luncheons, parties, and award ceremonies, the weekend provided alumni with an opportunity to cultivate new memories while re-planting piñon trees. The trees nearest the classroom buildings were planted when the campus was built in 1964; however, many of the trees on the surrounding college land are over 150 years old. Since 2002, the Santa Fe
Roxanne Seagraves (SF83), director of alumni relations and parent activities, said that working together helped the alumni interact in the present as well as the past. “At a reunion, sitting in seminar with the same people you sat in seminar with years ago affirms the past,” she says. “But this weekend was also about creating beauty in the present. When you replace a 300-year-old tree, you are replacing a legacy and making a tangible commitment to the future of the college.” Besides planting trees and digging up memories, reunion classes also enjoyed a full weekend of fun including a Saturday waltz party, alumni dinner and fiesta picnic, awards from the Alumni Association, dance lessons, a President’s brunch, and, of course, reunion seminars with retired tutors William Darkey, Don Cook, and Robert Sacks. x More on Homecoming can be found in the Alumni Association report, pages 46-47.
{ T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 }