Walk the walk
As winter’s snowpiles grudgingly melted last spring, students tentatively took to Alumni Walk, finding sunny nooks and apt open spaces for Frisbee tossing.
But the new space, stretching from College Street to the new dining Commons, didn’t get its first real workout until Reunion — June 7, 2008, at 11:24 a.m. to be exact — when 100-year-old Al Webber ’28 led the 2008 Alumni Parade down Alumni Walk.
The parade concluded near Garcelon Field, where alumni gathered to bestow service awards on
Robert ’50 and Gladys Bovino Dunn ’51 and on Jason ’95 and Deborah Nowak Verner ’95.
After a picnic lunch, the walk was dedicated during a street fair featuring jugglers, a steelpan band, and dessert. Jack Keigwin ’59, lead project donor with his family, reflected on the ebullient scene. “Taking in this sight — it’s exactly what we had hoped to accomplish,” he said.
As alums and their families embraced the new physical space, Keigwin talked about the College’s 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.”
Photographs by Phyllis Graber Jensen
