OCTOBER

Student Group Performs Corporal Work of Mercy

Twelve Rockhurst students offered their time, and more importantly their love and respect, for 120 strangers as they helped lay them to rest at Mt. Olivet Cemetery. The young men are part of an organization called the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society, named for the man who helped bury Jesus.

Homecoming Week and Reunion Weekend Honor School’s Rich Tradition

The end of September and the beginning of October was a time of celebrating Rockhurst’s history and traditions.

Homecoming Week began on Sept. 27 and each day of the week included organized student activities including lip sync battles, dance contest, Halloween costume contest, a pig roast, and a car smash prior to the Homecoming football game. The week also featured the longstanding traditions of Homecoming Mass and the Homecoming Dance; this year the dance was hosted outside at Dasta Memorial Stadium.

Homecoming Week led into Alumni Reunion Weekend , which took place

Oct. 1-2. Alumni from any graduating class were invited, but the 2021 Reunion focused on the great Classes of 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016.

The great Class of 1971 was able to join together for its Golden Jubilee celebration. And the great Classes of 1980 and 2005 also enjoyed organized gatherings, due to the cancellation of their reunions in 2020.

Reunion Weekend included a Top Golf tournament, football pre-game welcome party, Sports Hall of Fame inductions, attendance at the football game against Lee’s Summit West (a 21-10 win for the Hawklets), post-game gatherings for individual classes, the Alumni Soccer Game, and the Alumni Family Celebration of Mass.

“Class reunions are one of the best ways for alumni to renew their connection to The Rock,” said Meredith Suarez, director of alumni engagement. “Seeing old friends, attending sporting events, touring campus, and learning about exciting new projects strengthen the bonds of friendship and brotherhood.”

This ministry was reintroduced at Rockhurst in spring 2021, and continued in the fall. Students volunteer as pallbearers for the unclaimed cremated remains of men and women, after the county exhausts all efforts to find family and loved ones.

“It’s important for the boys to come to understand the gravity of their own life and of how precious life is,” said Paul Winkeler, Rockhurst faculty member and moderator of the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society. “From that, there’s a transformation throughout the day. They walk into the chapel to begin their day kind of in a regular every day [way] to them and then when they leave, they’ve had an experience that is unlike any other in terms of what they really understand about life.”

Students come away from the experience with a greater appreciation for the love in their own lives.