Josh deLacy
Calvin College celebrated its first combined Homecoming and Alumni Weekend several days ago, offering a range of activities for the alumni and families who filled the campus.
Tours of Grand Rapids, various presentations, Fall Music Festival and other events entertained the visitors and, if the hopes of the weekend’s planners were realized, tightened the extended Calvin family.
One of the main reasons for combining the two weekends was to bring alumni and families closer together, according to Carol Rienstra, Calvin’s community relations director. The reduced cost of combination also contributed to the decision to move Homecoming Weekend from its traditional spot in February.
The joint weekend celebration should “help parents see this big cloud of witnesses, that these are the people who care about Calvin,” said Rienstra. “And it’s to help alum see the families that are making up Calvin today. And hopefully there are chances for them to mingle along the way.”
By simply walking across campus last weekend, one encountered many parts of Calvin’s “cloud of witnesses.” Susan Hromada, a family visitor, said, “it was cute to see all the parents sporting Calvin-wear around campus.”
Calvin offered many chances for more direct mingling, including four tours of Grand Rapids on Friday, led by Carol Rienstra and Dick Harms, Calvin’s curator of archives.
In groups of 25 to 30, tour-goers boarded a bus for an hour-long driving tour of the city. Dick Harms presented a historical account of Grand Rapids and its ties with Calvin College, while Carol Rienstra shared the college’s current connections to the community.
Alumni and families saw East Grand Rapids, downtown, and Calvin’s old Franklin campus. Along the way, the guides explained ArtPrize, project neighborhood, the Ladies’ Literary Club, service learning, and various other aspects of the city.
If alumni asked to see a certain part of the community that they remembered from their time at the college, Harms said he added those locations to the tour as well.
Various presentations also filled the weekend. Friday afternoon, Professor of English Roy Anker discussed the human search for purpose as depicted by cinema and shared parts of his new book, “Of Pilgrims and Fire.”
Later that night in a father-daughter presentation, Joel Holtrop (’74), deputy chief for the U.S. Forest Service, and Jessica Holtrop (’07), wildland fire fighter, shared their career experiences to a crowd of parents, alumni, and a handful of students.
The annual Fall Music Festival drew hundreds of people into the Covenant Fine Arts Center on Saturday night, presenting Calvin’s various musical groups and its newly renovated building.
The first and last sections of the three-part concert took place in the auditorium and featured large performing groups, but in the middle hour, students, families and alumni chose between several short performances located throughout the C-FAC.
Other weekend activities included a Friday banquet for families, rock-climbing opportunities in the Spoelhof Fieldhouse, improv shows, and free ice cream and root beer floats. Families also had the opportunity to attend classes on Friday.
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