Richard Paige — The Ides of August, the vehicle for Wabash professors to share their creative and research efforts with colleagues across disciplines, brings out the best in our classroom leaders.

Witness two biology professors – Bradley Carlson and Heidi Walsh – who found different, and wildly successful, ways to engage students.

Entertaining the idea to search online museum databases to check the demographics of wildlife populations, Carlson thought of a project that might suit his Advanced Ecology students. Usually, his research centers on turtles, so he is attuned to sex ratios, how those differ among climates, and whether the ratios change over time.

Bradley Carlson.

“Why would I focus on one species when there are hundreds?” he realized. “I can’t do that. I don’t have the time.”

What he did have was students in his BIO 313 class who wanted to engage in real research, collect data, and use analytical tools. Work like this would allow the students to see the results, good or bad, play out in real time, unlike simply watching a presentation or reading a paper.

“They don’t see how we don’t know what is going to come of this at all,” Carlson said. “A lot of work has to go into what looks like a simple result. There are some simple figures there, but each of the students knows that they had to put in hours in curating this data. They got to see the whole process.”

Each of the students contributed something to the finished product, and three of them – Christian Gosser ’20, William Robinson ’19, and Charles Mettler ’18 – wanted to pursue it further. The resulting paper, “Reptile Sex Ratios in Museum Collections are Associated With Climate Change and Phylogeny,” was presented by Carlson and colleagues from Yale and Berkeley at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists this summer.

“It was a fun project to do and we all benefit from it,” Carlson said.

For Walsh, it would require an almost superhuman effort for her Organismal Physiology students to teach concepts to middle schoolers. Well, maybe superhero is more like it.

Heidi Walsh.

Walsh and her students used superhero attributes – imagine flying like Superman, having the strength of Thor, or the lightning-quick reflexes of Wonder Woman – to force her students to think about the concepts differently. About a month of lab work is dedicated to the project where students build lesson plans that explain concepts, set up experiments, and collect and graph data all through the prism of superheroes.

“It was really cool to see them work through showing concepts in a hands-on way to kids of this age group,” Walsh said. “They had a lot of fun with it, so it was rewarding. The best part is that they are amazingly creative with how they illustrate these things.”

Imagine using different sized tubes to represent blood flow or using a Nerf gun to facilitate an experiment in reaction time. According to Walsh, one memorable teaching aid required creating Thor’s Hammer with a five-gallon bucket, some quick-dry cement, and a squeeze ball attached to the handle to measure how much force was applied when the kids tried to lift it.

“Our students just light up, not just when designing activities, but in interacting with the kids,” she said. “They are really, really good. They’ve never done this before, and they don’t know how good they could be until they do it.”

Richard Paige — Confirmed to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Damon R. Leichty ’94 endured quite a wait in his elevation to the bench.

Leichty was nominated for the position by President Donald Trump in July 2018. His senate confirmation – by an 85-10 vote – came nearly a year later. Such appointments are often the result of stellar accomplishments as a lawyer.

“Damon is a very good lawyer,” said Bob Grand ’78, a Partner with Barnes & Thornburg LLP. “He is always prepared and well spoken. This is an extraordinary honor and one bestowed on very few Americans.”

Damon R. Leichty ’94.

A lawyer at Barnes & Thornburg since 2000, Leichty specializes in commercial and product litigation. Most recently, he served as the managing partner at B&T’s South Bend, Indiana, office and also was an adjunct professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School.

After graduating summa cum laude from Wabash College with a B.A. in English, Leichty earned his J.D., cum laude, from Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where he won the school’s Sherman Minton Moot Court competition and served as a law journal editor. He also earned a master’s degree studying literature and law at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

Leichty’s path from Wabash to the U.S. District Court also gave a recent graduate a sense of the possibilities that lie ahead.

“Soon-to-be Judge Leichty’s appointment reinforces the fact that Wabash College produces incredibly successful and prominent lawyers and judges year in and year out,” said Erich Lange ’19. “The success of those alumni who have entered the legal field speaks for itself, and showcases to young men considering a profession in the law that they should seriously consider Wabash.”

The confirmation also gave Lange, winner of the College’s 2019 Junior Pack Medal which is given annually to a student who exhibits special promise in the law, something to shoot for when he begins postgraduate studies at Georgetown University Law School this fall.

“I understand and appreciate the legacy my fellow alumni have worked so hard to build,” he said. “I will strive to live up to those expectations.”

Richard Paige — Erich Lange ’19, like most of us at some point in our childhoods, grew up riding in the car between band concerts, baseball games, and other activities, changing uniforms in the backseat. Most of us outgrow the need to stay so busy—we pick one thing and search for excellence there.

Busy is still his normal, and he’s handling it all very well.

The North Coast Athletic Conference recently named Lange as the 2019 winner of the Don Hunsinger Award. He is the first Wabash student-athlete to claim it. He credits a childhood where he was constantly moving from one thing to the next – hence the need to change uniforms en route – as the foundation for what would become earning a league honor that spotlights academic achievement, athletics excellence, service, and leadership.

A political science and German double major, Lange graduated Summa Cum Laude with distinction on his senior comprehensive exams, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is a Mackintosh Fellow, a Rosenberg Writing Scholar, and winner of the Peck Medal.

He was a Moot Court finalist in 2018, interned with the Legal Aid Society of Louisville, volunteered four years at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club of Montgomery County, and was a member of

Erich Lange ’19.

the Wabash Pre-Law Society, the Sons of Wabash, and served for two years as a freshman orientation mentor.

As a catcher for the Little Giant baseball team, Lange batted .393 as a senior, tied for the team lead with five home runs, and drove in 39. He was an all-NCAC pick and a second team Academic All-America selection.

It’s not easy to make such a resume look seamless, but Lange accomplished the feat.

“I’ve always been able to take on a lot of things at once, and I’ve admired people who have a seemingly perfect balance in every aspect of their life,” he says. “Being busy with extracurriculars and balancing that with school has been my normal. When I got to Wabash, I knew I had the opportunity to not only play baseball and work hard in the classroom, but to be involved on campus as well.”

Lange leads by example, hoping to encourage others through action. Those actions may most often come into play when it comes to service.

“Sometimes I get busy or would rather do other things, and it’s hard to find the motivation,” he says. “Being the change you want to see in the world requires that you get off the couch and do it. To me, a vital part of character is acting on your beliefs. I believe in helping others, so I ought to do just that.”

The Hunsinger Award capped a spring that saw Lange bestowed with a number of accolades, including the IAWM Scholar-Athlete award, King Prize in German and the Lipsky Award in political science.

I asked Lange, who heads to Georgetown University Law School in Washington, D.C., this fall, how he was able to do it all. He gave me an answer right out of the front seat of his childhood.

“I have to credit that to my mom,” he says. “She always wanted me to be well rounded.”

Richard Paige — I was combing through the photo archives recently when I stumbled across the gallery I posted of Freshman Saturday in August of 2015. So I stopped to look at them again.

These were the first moments that the Class of 2019 were all together on campus. It’s always interesting to be roaming the campus during times like this where a multitude of emotions seem to bubble up with each beat of the heart.

Lingering on these photos reminds me that the Class of 2019 is filled with some really good guys. We say that every year, but these pictures affected me a little differently. Maybe it was

Christian Wirtz ’19 in a photo taken on Freshman Saturday in August 2015.

because at the time I clicked that button on the camera, I had finally been at Wabash long enough to both capture and appreciate what these guys were going through and where the journey was heading.

I reached out to two of the students featured in the gallery, Brandon Arbuckle ’19, a political science major from Bloomington, and Christian Wirtz ’19, a rhetoric major from South Bend, and asked them two questions that came to mind as I pondered those pictures:

What thought enters your head upon seeing that photo?
Wirtz: I look at that picture and I see a kid in over his head who has no idea who he is nor who he wants to be. Blissfully ignorant of how much he’ll rely on other people to get him

through college, from my parents, my professors, and the friends I’ve made along the way. I see a boy who is not even sure he’s ended up at the right college and has no idea how much this place will mean to him in four short years.

Arbuckle: It was hot. My parents and I, mom looking at the camera in this photo, carried all my boxes up the stairs of the pre-renovated Martindale Hall (a lot of it stayed in those boxes for the entirety of the year). I remember meeting my Bangladeshi roommate, Hasan Irtija, shortly after this was taken. When I was admitted to Wabash and figuring out housing, I typed “international student preferred” for roommate preference. Hasan helped me move in, and we roomed together until he graduated last year. I’m so glad I did; he and I meshed so well. It was a lot of fun living with him. I think we peeled the room number placard off our wall when we moved out of Martindale 412 for renovations. I imagine I still have it somewhere.

I also remember crying in the room with my parents when they said goodbye and headed home. It was the only time they’d ever sent a kid off to college, and was my first time living anywhere but home. After they left I settled in quickly.

Looking back on the last four years, what does such a memory mean to you?
Arbuckle: Looking back, the uncertainty of what four years at this school would mean for my life was daunting. It felt like graduation was an

Brandon Arbuckle ’19 in a photo taken on Freshman Saturday in August 2015.

eternity away. Now that it’s just around the corner, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on not only the experiences that helped mold me into the person I am today, but also the people who helped get me there. From my family and friends, to peers and professors, the growth fostered by the people at this institution is remarkable. I’ll miss the camaraderie. There were a lot of challenges and hard points, but they all helped me in the end. I’m excited to take these memories and experiences out after graduation, and look forward to coming back to Wabash, my home away from home, in future years.

Wirtz: Seeing this picture, I’m also reminded of the ringing in ceremony and how overwhelmed I felt–I didn’t think I was smart enough to make it through and that everyone involved in my deciding I was Wabash material had made a mistake. I remember moving in and my mother crying. But of course, this also reminds me of freshman orientation week and walking

Arbuckle (left) and Wirtz circa 2019.

nervously into Hovey Cottage for the first time–I had interrupted a staff meeting as I was running late for the library tour. This was, of course, when I met Brent Harris [eventually becoming a student assistant in the sports information office] and the rest, as they say, is history.

I referenced the photo just two days after I took it, when Christian, indeed, interrupted one of our staff meetings while looking for work, saying “I took your picture Saturday,” as a way of breaking the ice. It was amongst the first of 123 photos I took that day.

Long in our hearts we’ll bear the sweetest mem’ries of thee. Congratulations to the Class of 2019.

Richard Paige — Sometimes you wonder where inspiration comes from. Other times, it’s obvious.

Jordan Ogle ’19 is a writer. The English literature major with a philosophy minor loves poetry. “This is my dream to study poetry and to share that with anyone who is willing to listen,” he told me recently.

I asked how he got hooked on poetry. Turns out, it was his grandmother, Carrie Phillips.

She was a factory worker in Clinton, Indiana, for the majority of her life. High school educated, Carrie never went to college, but she has long written poetry and shares that with Jordan. He remembers those poems, stuffed in her Bible, and her reading them with him as far back as elementary school.

“She kept those in her Bible and she would read them to me,” he says. “It was a way for her to express

Jordan Ogle ’19.

herself and the frustration of living as a working-class woman and a single mom, but also a way for her to express the kind of beauty she saw in the world.”

Now all these years later, poetry has become the centerpiece of Jordan’s academic interests. They still share poetry today, and I’d bet such an exchange brings a smile to her face.

“Even though she didn’t go to college and study poetry in a scholarly sense, she understands, and what I have to say about poetry resonates with her,” he explains. “What I’m doing now makes her happy, probably because it’s what she wishes she had the opportunity to do.”

Recently, Ogle earned a Fulbright U.K. Partner fellowship and will study at the University of Exeter in England next year. Further, he has been accepted into a Ph.D. program at the University of Iowa and will begin studies when his master’s work at Exeter is completed.

Jordan was named a Julia Rosenberg Writing Scholar last fall, earned distinction on his comprehensive exams, and was an honoree at Awards Chapel multiple times, including the Walter L. Fertig Prize in English.

But it wasn’t always easy for Ogle. He’s battled mental health issues while here and showed remarkable resilience in becoming the first person in his family to graduate from college and the first to travel abroad.

Still, the next step to Exeter is a big one.

“She will miss me,” he starts, “but she is excited for me. All of the work I’ve put in at Wabash, to taking care of my mental health, to taking care of my family back home, has all been worth it in the end, and I think she feels that, too. I think about how lucky I am to even be here today.”

Richard Paige — Leave it to a father and son to bring a little emotion into the 2019 IAWM Leadership Breakfast.

After spirited presentations from Derrin Slack ’10, Tom Hiatt ’70, Wabash President Greg Hess, and Andrea Pactor, the audience of more than 220 turned its attention to the final piece of the program: the Indianapolis Association of Wabash Men’s presentation of its Man-of-the-Year award to Dr. Don Shelbourne ’72.

Long an innovator when it comes to knee reconstructions, Don began his orthopaedic sports medicine career in 1982. A standout football player and wrestler for the Little Giants, he became interested in sports medicine after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament while in college. Because of that injury, his practice, the Shelbourne Knee Center, focuses on the treatment, rehabilitation, and research of ACL injuries.

Dr. Don Shelbourne ’72 (left) looks on as his son, Brian ’12, introduces him as the IAWM Man of the Year.

In the nearly four decades since, Don has seen a research department and database for evaluating outcomes grow after more than 6,500 surgeries. Such follow-up has allowed him to identify problems with treatment and the factors associated with optimum long-term outcomes. His efforts have advanced ACL rehabilitation to the point where results – returning patients to athletic activities quickly – are predictable and successful.

When Don stepped to the podium on March 21, the introduction was anything but usual. His son Brian ’12, himself a standout Wabash basketball player, delivered a heartfelt description of a father, friend, mentor, and surgeon that ran the gamut from funny to emotional.

“Unbelievable,” was how Don described it after the fact, “I’m going to get emotional again, if I keep thinking about it.”

Together on that stage, the Shelbournes leaned on each other as Brian spoke. A well-timed joke to head off tears, a knowing glance, a needed squeeze of the shoulders. All of it shared and needed in the description of a worthy recipient.

The impact of the moment wasn’t lost on Brian.

Shelbourne receives the award from his son, Brian (right).

“It was weighing on me, for sure,” he said. “You think about doing this and you want to do it right. It’s a special opportunity.”

During the speech, Brian mentioned that his father was passionate about several things…his family, his work, and Wabash College chief among them.

“Being able to go through the Wabash experience,” he started though a smile moments after leaving the stage, “and always to have that is something special we share.”

Those in attendance were pleased to have shared in the moment, too.

Richard Paige — Tobey Herzog is back in the classroom and he calls it “one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”

He retired in 2014, but old habits are hard to break. The Emeritus Professor of English can be found instructing yet another edition of Wabash men in Business and Technical Writing, a class he started on campus and taught for more than 30 years.

Tobey Herzog H’11 with his Business and Technical Writing students.

That experience makes him comfortable with the subject matter, but he had concerns about the students. Had they changed?

“I started this class and I feel comfortable doing it,” Herzog says. “I thought, ‘gee, four and a half years, the students may have changed.’ They haven’t changed at all. That’s one of the positive things about Wabash.”

For him, it was different. With only one class to teach, time became an ally. It opened up ways for him to think about the class in different and deeper ways.

“I discovered that if I had just taught one class per semester I would have been the greatest teacher in the world,” he laughs. “Having time to really think about each class, to prepare for it, and do some things that in the past I didn’t have enough time to get ready for has made it much better.”

The students are noticing, too. On this day, the discussion initially centered on what was learned from previous assignments and how to move forward. With a feasibility study and product development launch ahead, the lesson was clear: from this point forward, it’s time to apply what you’ve learned.

Herzog awaits the start of class.

“What is so interesting with Dr. Herzog is that it’s very practical information and he makes it very relatable,” says Simran Sandhu ’20. “It’s a good way for all of us to connect. It’s not just research and write. It’s very cool to get that sense of writing in various situations.”

As a business minor, this class is one of Sandhu’s requirements, but he had other goals in mind as well.

“Written communication is something I haven’t been able to articulate well over the years,” he says. “After a few classes with Dr. Herzog, I was confident I made the right choice.”

Like many retirees, Herzog’s concerns also addressed his own relevance.

“Once you retire the difficulty is still feeling relevant,” he says. “But then this opportunity to be somewhat relevant again – to walk on campus and have students who are in your class say hello and chat – I think it’s great.”

The shared experience seems like a win-win for everyone in that classroom.

A few days ago, I sat in the audience at the 19^th Annual Celebration of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Work as a Wabash student condensed a semester’s worth of literature research into a fifteen-minute presentation. Samuel Stephenson ’20 didn’t know it, but as he stood at the lectern and talked about the theme of exile and societal nonconformity in a short story by famed Irish writer James Joyce, I was in the audience feeling a wave of déjà vu.

In five other rooms throughout the building, something similar was happening: students presented, audiences asked questions, and the larger Wabash community got a glimpse inside the scholarly workings of the College.

For me, though, this particular presentation was special: I’d been here before. Exactly here.

Five years ago, I had donned my only suit, watched a YouTube tutorial on how to tie my tie, and walked across campus to the same room, where I had stood at the same lectern, shuffled my notes, and given a presentation on the exile of the artist in James Joyce’s Ireland, all the while trying not to sweat through my suit jacket.

5 years ago, biking in Ireland as a student

Of course, the chance to present my work was an incredible opportunity: it opened a window of international travel for me, as the course had come with an immersive learning portion in Ireland; I did serious academic work where the writing had to speak for itself; but I was then also asked to take that heady work and turn it into something more easily understood by audiences outside of my field of study.

Later that same year, I walked across campus to attend the esteemed LaFollette Lecture, where my faculty sponsor—English Professor Agata Szczeszak-Brewer, the same faculty sponsor for Samuel Stephenson at this year’s Celebration—gave a rousing lecture about what James Joyce’s voluntary exile from Ireland could tell us about teaching the humanities, particularly at Wabash. The lecture left me emotional beyond my ability to put into words; in the aftermath, when I went to give my congratulations to Prof. Szczeszak-Brewer, I kept bumbling around for a word to describe how I felt. Once I found the word, I kept repeating it, hoping she would understand what I was failing to put eloquently: I felt affirmed, affirmed, affirmed.

I now know what I was trying (and failing) to say that day: I had just realized that Wabash was letting me in on what one of its former presidents had called “the grand conversation”—and I felt grateful that I had been given the tools and the opportunity to speak my piece in that conversation.

The year I presented my research, James Joyce’s Dubliners turned 100 years old. The book isn’t getting any younger; the scholarly research, however, is always changing, and Wabash students like Stephenson are tasked with carving out space for their ideas, and then inviting others in too.

Just as she did five years ago, last Friday Prof. Szczeszak-Brewer sat in the audience, having overseen a semester’s worth of progress, and asked still further questions, leading with inquiry. Community members turned the ideas over in their heads, genuinely curious about how these varied areas of study could benefit their own understanding of the world.

And I sat in the back of the room, affirmed, watching another Wabash mind get ushered into the grand conversation the same way that I had five years earlier.

Over Thanksgiving Break, art major Marlon Lewis ’20 went on his first immersion trip to Prague, Czech Republic to hand carve puppets with his Theater 303 class. In January, he will be leaving for South Africa for a semester-long study abroad program.

We sat down with Lewis to hear about his immersion experience and learn more about the Chicago-native’s desire to travel.

Marlon Lewis ’20, far right, and the Theater 303 class in Prague

Q: For starters, why puppets? And why Prague? What’s the connection there?

A: Our Theater 303 class spent the entire semester learning about Czech puppetry – it’s super connected to their culture. Puppetry has been around for a really long time. When the Czech Republic was under Habsburg rule, German was considered the official language of state, and Czech language and culture was suppressed. The traveling puppeteers continued to perform in Czech and helped the language survive through puppet shows. Over time, puppets have become a symbol to the country.

We went there specifically to make our own puppets with professional puppeteers. Over the semester, we designed our puppets, sent them out to the workshop, and got feedback from the puppet masters.

Q: Before your trip to Prague, had you ever been out of the country before?

A: No! I hadn’t even been on a plane for longer than two hours! When I came to Wabash from Chicago, I didn’t even think of leaving the country. I never thought I’d be in Prague, making a puppet. That was so surreal, yet I didn’t feel out of place. I could tell I was somewhere new, but it felt normal. I jumped right in and did my thing.

Q: Were you nervous?

A: I was nervous about getting lost. Not being able to talk to anybody. I didn’t know enough Czech to get by at all. I could wake up and say, “Good morning.” I could say, “Good day.” And I could say, “Thank you.” But I was also really looking forward to experiencing something that wasn’t American. I wanted to see a different perspective.

Lewis in the puppetry workshop in Prague

Q: What was the shop like where all of you worked?

A: People spend their entire life in puppetry and never get the chance to be in the shop where we worked. That shop has a waiting list!

When I heard that, I was like, “Dang!” We really felt special. And all I could think about was thanking Wabash for using my tuition in a way that I never would have thought of.

Q: How much of the trip did you spend working, and how often did you get to explore?

A: We went over there to do a job. We worked about 40 hours in the shop that week, so it felt like we were workers—not tourists. After our second day, I was wishing that we had the morning to go out and do stuff. To see things in the light. But then I realized that everyone else in the city is doing their job or going to school, so I wasn’t in broad daylight embarrassing myself, trying to figure out where to go!

Q: How different did it feel making a puppet in a workshop in Prague compared to something you create in one of your art classes?

A: It wasn’t a classroom. They were instructing you, but you were on your own. Even though we got a grade on what we made, it wasn’t a studio class where I felt like I was making it for the grade. I really felt like I was making it for me. The puppeteer we were working with is probably in the top five of all time. He brought in a top-10 master carver, who brought in another. To learn under them, to see their abilities, even though it was just for a few days, it was invaluable. Especially since I make art all the time. They taught me thought patterns that I’ll hold onto forever.

Lewis shows off his hand-carved creation in Lilly Library

Q: How did you decide what type of puppet to make?

A: My puppet is a skeleton. At the beginning of class, we had to choose a Czech person to model our puppet after, and the guy I chose was from the 1800s. He was commissioned by a church to store and organize the bones. So it was like, “What could I do with you?” I’m kind of into the macabre thing. The beauty of it – making it beautiful. I can find positives in almost anything, so I thought I could make something really nice out of this.

So my skeleton is the protector of the ossuary (a room in which the bones of dead people are placed). My original idea was just a huge head. Arms and legs hanging out of the head – I didn’t want a torso or anything. But when I sent that out, the master carver said it would be too difficult for my first puppet.

(laughs) Now my puppet is in a black lining with gold lining and a gold chain.

Q: When you did get to explore, what was Prague like?

A: Prague, at least the parts we were in, wasn’t modern at all. They still have cobblestone roads. Most of what we walked on was cobblestone. Anthony (Williams ’20) and I found maybe two or three roads that were paved.

It’s such an old city compared to Chicago. The structure of the buildings felt similar with the ground level of the buildings being a shop and then people living on top – I see that all the time back home. But there’s really no space between the buildings. We barely have space between our houses back home. People in Indy are always like, “Why are the houses in Chicago so close?” In Prague, you couldn’t even walk between most of the buildings!

Q: Speaking of homes, we heard you all were able to meet with three alums who live in Prague!

A: Oh yeah, I was like, “What the heck?” I didn’t even know where Prague was before this class, and there were three! One alum has been out there going on eight years, and he left the day after his graduation. He initially was working with a church program, and now he works with a monastery. He’s also a football coach for the national Czech football team. Another is an English teacher, and he’s been out there for 3 years. They each gave us their own tour of the city, so that was nice.

It’s always fun to meet Wabash guys. We just all connect so easily. It was crazy to learn that there are people who know what we go through and people who have had similar experiences and are now living in Prague. If I ever want to come back, I know people here!

Q: Now that you’re back, you’re preparing to leave again. How are you feeling as you get ready to study in South Africa for a semester?

A: I honestly can’t wait. I’m so excited for it. That’s really why I was so glad to be part of this class. I was about to be gone for half a year, and I hadn’t even been out of the country for a day! I had no idea what that was going to be like. This trip helped me understand the mindset I’ll have to have as I travel and gave me an idea of some of the challenges I’ll face.

My goal after college is to travel, meet people, and help them better understand each other. Help people become more connected. Whenever anyone asks what I want to do, I always say, “Save the world.” But I have to explore it first.

Richard Paige — The goal behind WABASH Day was never self-serving. Sure, there would be meaningful service – 16 projects that dotted Crawfordsville and Central Indiana as well as six others spread nationally from Washington, DC, to Denver to Dallas – but the goal was always something bigger.

“From the beginning, WABASH Day also aimed to strengthen the bonds among alumni, faculty, staff, and students and to welcome our family members, too,” said Jon Pactor ’71, the man behind the idea. “It would also provide leadership opportunities for individuals and would strengthen regional associations. After 14 years, it has proven to be a grand success.”

Yes, after 14 years, WABASH Day (Wabash Alumni Benefiting And Serving Humanity) continues to meet the challenge of improving communities and fostering camaraderie.

George Vinihakis ’15, of Orland Park, IL, captained the Wabash Club of Chicago’s efforts to clean up a Chicago-area beach. Working through the adopt a beach program, Wabash alumni gathered at the 12th Street Beach and collected nearly 50 pounds of trash from the lakeshore.

The alumni group in Dallas, Texas.

Camaraderie is the lasting effect.

“While it was great in helping maintain one of the more renowned Chicago beaches, the overriding benefit was the camaraderie,” said Vinihakis. “What makes these events so enjoyable is sharing the moment and accomplishment with other Wabash guys. New connections were made and fostered because of this project, which is paramount to our efforts as an alumni group.”

Jared Lange ’08, of Dallas, TX, coordinated a day of fence painting at Dallas Heritage Village. Located in historic Old City Park, the museum uses its collections of historic buildings (1840-1910) and furnishings to sponsor research and to present educational programs and special events for diverse
audiences.

Lange feels a strong byproduct of the endeavor is to get to know his fellow Wabash grads a bit better.

“The greatest benefit, aside from providing assistance, is meeting other Wabash associated individuals in the area,” he said. “We extend the invite to non-grads, family members, and

Classmates Patrick Bryant ’16 (left) and Grant Benefiel ’16 volunteer at The Villages.

board members. In the Dallas/Fort Worth area, people are constantly moving into the community, so it’s nice to learn more about each other’s backgrounds and interests.”

There is value, too, in the assistance, as can be seen in the work that Kevin Benefiel ’81 and his family have championed at The Villages, a provider of foster care, adoption, child care, and early childhood development services in Indianapolis.

This was the 14th consecutive year Benefiel and his family — wife Julie, and sons Ty ’08 and Grant ’16 – have completed projects at The Villages, ranging from painting interior walls to spreading mulch throughout the playground to painting and staining the playground equipment.

In that span, WABASH Day efforts have helped The Villages save thousands of dollars. Pactor, a regular contributor at The Villages, remembered that one year a staff member said they spread so much mulch that it saved the agency enough money to fuel their bus for an entire year.

Benefiel felt a similar impact, as well. “The improvements we’ve made both inside and out at The Villages has had a positive impact on the appearance,” he said. “However, the financial impact we’ve had in terms of saving The Villages over $25,000 dollars has been beneficial to them and rewarding for us.”

The win-win proposition of WABASH Day also resonates with group leaders like Lange.

“I enjoy to participating in WABASH Day because it’s a great opportunity to assist our community and grow the bonds between our alumni,” said Lange. “It’s an honor to aid an organization with other individuals who share the same passion to help.”