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This year’s Alumni Champagne Luncheon over Commencement/Reunion Weekend welcomed the graduating class of 2005 to the Oberlin alumni family and showcased the fundraising efforts of the fifteen reunion classes and clusters. A total of $9,962,174 was announced and soon surpassed the $10 million mark by additional gifts from an honorary trustee and others who wanted to celebrate their reunion experience by supporting their alma mater.

Topping the fundraising charts was the class of 1955’s $6.5 million gift in honor of their 50th reunion. These outright and planned gifts were solicited over a two and a half year period primarily through peer interaction and the hard work of the Reunion Gift Committee, which was co-chaired by Margaret “Peg” Yocom Atwater and Jane Bishop.

When Associate Director of Gift Planning Jamie Jurado first approached the two class vice presidents about co-chairing the Reunion Gift Committee, they initially turned her down. “We were very resistant to the idea of asking our classmates for money,” Atwater explains. “I had no idea how to approach it, but Jamie walked us through every step.”

By September 2004, with roughly $3 million already raised by staff and intermittent peer solicitation, some twenty Reunion Gift Committee members sat down on campus to decide who would contact which members of the class of ’55 for a reunion gift. “We were blessed to have some of the best leaders of our class involved,” Atwater notes. “Each person who gathered last September had a reason to be there: they wanted to help Oberlin.”

Peg Atwater, Beth Molder, and Jane Bishop take a moment to celebrate their hard work on the Class of 1955 Reunion Gift Committee.

From that point on, the reunion gift process became the lifeblood of the reunion – and the key to its enthusiastic attendance. “We began by calling our classmates with an emphasis on returning for the reunion,” Atwater recalls. “Then we made them aware of our fundraising goal and invited them to be part of our success. Not everyone was in a position to serve on the committee or make a leadership gift, but they all were encouraged to participate as best as they could.”

This kind of personal attention was just one element of the class of 1955’s success. They also benefited from the broad perspective of its co-class presidents, Gay and Ann Slosser, who respectively graduated from the College of Arts & Sciences and the Conservatory. In addition to one-on-one solicitation, the class held three regional social events – in New York, Connecticut, and Washington, DC – to help kick off the reunion giving campaign.

The result of all of this planning and effort? Over $6.5 million raised in present and future gifts for Oberlin College. And best of all, the class of 1955 enjoyed a reunion to remember. “Some of our classmates hadn’t been back in fifty years,” Bishop concludes. “I know they were excited about what they saw and heard.”

“It’s never too late to return to campus,” Jurado notes. “We’re thrilled to welcome our alumni back to renew their friendships and their love of Oberlin. We also want to thank them for all they have done to make Oberlin the place it is.”

At the close of another reunion cycle, Oberlin has emerged an even stronger institution because of the generous gifts of its reunion classes – gifts that commemorate Oberlin’s role in the lives of alumni of all ages.

To learn more about serving on your class’s reunion gift committee, please contact The Oberlin Alumni Fund at oberlin.fund@oberlin.edu or 1-800-693-3167.