This year's Alumni Phonathon was an exercise in outreach as well as fundraising.
As of December 4, $40,449 was either pledged or already given, according to Linda Calandra, director of annual giving and donor relations. Calandra and Paul Micu, director of alumni and church relations, sponsored the event. All gifts go to scholarships.
In all, 17 student callers spent their evenings speaking to alumni old and new between October 1 and November 19. In addition to asking for funds, callers brought people up to speed on events on campus and happenings in the lives of today's students. One special piece of the event was the prayer requests students would take from those they called. "The students would pray for the people at the end of every evening," Calandra said.
The 1980 phonathon is the first one on record. Some $9,000 was pledged in six nights. Luetta Riemer, now English faculty emerita, was alumni director.