Hello again from Alumni House!
We have indeed been busy since the last issue of Journey magazine six months ago. The highlight of our spring was, as always, convocation. This past May and June we welcomed over 2,300 new graduates to the alumni family, and we're eager to start engaging with them and our over 70,000 alumni living and working all over the world.
That's why your Alumni Board and staff have been diligently planning many fantastic in-person and virtual events for the fall and winter, and we can't wait to get out there and meet you.
You may already have attended the Blue Jays game on September 14—which included a special event co-hosted by the GTA and Simcoe County Alumni Chapters—and received a special Blue Jays - Lakehead branded ball cap so that you can show your Lakehead for Life pride wherever you go.
Or you may have been at the Orillia Homecoming that ran from September 22 to 24 and participated in some of the in-person and virtual events that took place throughout Simcoe County. This was the first year that the Alumni Association hosted the Lakehead Celebrates – Alumni Honours Evening in Orillia. It was a wonderful occasion that honoured some truly special members of our family. Meanwhile, the Thunder Bay Homecoming on October 13 and 14 featured entertaining events planned by the Thunder Bay Chapter and heart-racing skating action by our Thunderwolves hockey team.
The Alumni Association's Annual General Meeting (AGM) on October 2 offered another opportunity to engage and, following the tradition of recent years, we were pleased to have a guest speaker as part of the event. The Rt. Hon. David Johnston—former Governor General of Canada—joined us for a compelling discussion of his two recent books, Trust: Twenty Ways to Build a Better Country and Empathy: Turning Compassion into Action.
In case you missed all the excitement of early fall, it doesn't end there. We have class reunions happening throughout the fall and the resumption of our Varsity Engagement Program (check out the away game schedule in this issue).
So . . . where will we see you this fall?
Yolanda Wanakamik, HBA'98/MEd'00
President, Alumni Association
Mark Tilbury, HBCom'94
Executive Director, Alumni Association