By Stephen Rute
The goals of the Alumni Association of the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf shall be primarily to keep alive their love for their Alma Mater, and secondly, to renew old ties of friendship and promote useful endeavors and social interactions among the graduates and former students of the school.
The 32nd triennial Alumni Reunion was held on the weekend of June 17-19 2005 and attended by less than 80 participants. The highlights were a Silent Auction, and a 15-mintue short movie, “WPSD Then and Now” presented on PowerPoint slideshow. Saturday morning, President James DeBee welcomed the alumni members to the Executive Board Meeting. As Bylaws Article II – Meeting Section 2, the members can give their voices but not vote. The highlights were discussed on the election system to alumni members via mail and e-mail, redesign and updated our Alumni Association logo, museum, May Day picnic, scholarship and alumni reunion. All of us have to modify our events because our time is changing. We have to make more creative and attractive activities to keep this Alumni Reunion ALIVE.
We had our banquet at the Omni William Penn Hotel, downtown on Saturday evening. The highlights were a famous caricature and portrait artist who made party caricatures for free; Miss Deaf Pennsylvania, Kristin Macgill; and our entertainer, Vlad! Valentine Wojton and Kathy Betz gave their goofy entertainment as Emcee. Stephen Rute, Chairperson of Awards, presented awards: the Alumni Merit Award went to Wesley Dickson, Donald Majocha and Norman Wesoky; the Athletic Hall of Fame Award was given to Wesley Dickson, Wes Hawkins, and Stephen Rute; the Rev. John G. Brown Service Award was given to Adolph Binotto, Ada Mudinger-Spako, and George M. Teegarden; the Distinguished Alumnus Award was given to Richard Starr. Outgoing president, James DeBee, induced John Noschese as new president. This year is 90th anniversary, and to continue this triennial Alumni Reunion, we need your commitment and full support.