HONORED GUESTS … The oldest alumni at the banquet were honored, with Class of 1944 members Ruth Huffman Beck and Walter “Tug” Guthrie receiving the honor this year.
By: Anna Wozniak
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
anna@thevillagereporter.com
The Stryker Alumni Association held their 120th annual banquet this year, meeting to award five members of the Class of 2024 with scholarships towards their future endeavors.
The banquet began at 6 p.m., with First Lutheran Church’s Joyful Singers providing entertainment throughout the meal. Brooke Collins, Michael Donovan, Jacob Cadwell, Adysen Andres, and Angie Soellner were then awarded scholarships, with each detailing their future plans.
The conversation then turned more solemn, with former association secretary Pam Oberlin sharing that she is officially retiring.
Without computer knowledge, it has been hard for Pam to maintain contact with association members, and without community interest, it is hard to keep the association running. A motion was made to disband the association after 120 years of annual banquets.
After many of the older attendees voiced how strongly they felt about the association and the bonds that it enables them to maintain, the motion was tabled.
It was shared how the younger alumni should get involved before it’s too late, and to not let another community tradition die out.
One attendee shared that while the younger alumni “may not realize it now, but in 50-60 years, your families and classmates and communities will become important to you. These years you spent together here will become important to you.”
It was decided that the association would spend the next six months looking for more community involvement from Stryker alumni.
Younger alumni are in desperate need, as the association is seeing itself maintained by those who are getting too old for the positions and finding themselves without currently needed skills.
If no interest is shown by the younger generations of alumni, in six months’ time, the 120-year-old tradition could be disbanded, with no future scholarships to graduating seniors to be awarded and no place for alumni of all years to meet and greet one another once again.
