My husband and I were at a graduation party early in June and did not know anyone other than the graduate and her mother.
We had dinner with four other people; one of the women looked vaguely familiar to me but I could not place her. Someone, it might have been me, mentioned Ascension. The man sitting across the table from me said, “I went to Ascension.”
I sometimes wonder what people think when they see me react to this casual statement. I know that my posture changes, my voice rises, for all I know my face becomes more animated. I probably seem to pounce. “Did you? Are you getting mailings from us?” (This “us” before the alum has a clue who I am.) If they respond that they are getting mailings from “us” I tell them those mailings are from me, and then introduce myself with what must be obvious excitement.
No, we were not separated at birth. I am just the keeper of the alumni database at Ascension School. And if you are an alum, you, unaware as you might be, are a rock star in my database.
“Did you? Are you getting mailings from us?” For the first time ever, the person of whom I asked this question got excited, too. “I am,” he said. “Actually, my wife developed the first database for the Ascension Alumni Association in the ’90s.”
Of course she looked familiar. I was talking to Everett Bell (’76) whose wife, Laura, had indeed put together an Access-based program for Gene Kunkel (’52), Beth Dougherty (’86), Joan Pollard Waldron (’72), Katie Ryan McCahill (’72), friend Juel Marifjeren, et al, who had arranged two all-school reunions at the end of the last century and gathered information about some two thousand Ascension alums. This dedicated group of volunteers was the proud keeper of Ascension’s history until 2001 when the Ascension Development Office opened and assumed responsibility for alumni records.
I had never met Everett, but Laura had met with me several times, very generously, to help me learn how to manage the database. We used Laura’s program until 2004 when a school family helped us upgrade to a software program designed to help track gifts, events and relationships. But Laura, Gene and friends gave us an enormous head start because of their commitment to Ascension and the relationships they or their friends had developed there.
And we have grown because of the commitment of many more alumni: those who have helped find “lost” classmates, those who have planned reunions, those who have shared photos, memories and general information over the years. From the approximate 2,000 alums for whom we received records in 2001, we now have nearly 3,000. (Sounds small to you? Remember, we find people one at a time – and we lose them that way, too, when they move between mailings and we don’t receive a forwarding address.) We are also building relationship files, tracing the siblings, the parents, grandparents – whatever you tell us about these folks, we record it.
So thank you again, Laura. And Gene, Beth, Joan, Katie. Juel, continue to rest in peace. All you who are among the found – we’re so glad we know where you are. And you, all who are still missing – please get in touch!
