While our quarterly newsletter will provide a full account of the activities and fun that occurred, we thought it would be a treat to give those of you who were unable to make it a quick update on how it all turned out!
Even though the weather was not supposed to cooperate, Ithaca delivered a gorgeous weekend free of the rain promised, making it pretty hard for the alums that attended to want to head home on Sunday. Just in case the weather decided to change, the team building event hosted by the two graduating seniors, Alex Botte and Olivia Boyd, was held in the Ramin Room on the morning of Saturday, April 28, 2012. The team building activities consisted of a mix of field hockey skills and physical fitness that small teams competed in to gain the most points. After dominating the field hockey skills portion, the teams, consisting of a mix of alums and current players, participated in a game of trivia surrounding Cornell Field Hockey's history. Even though only one team won, everyone gained a few new friends from this portion of the weekend!
With the team building under everyone's belt and new rivalries forming, the group got geared up and headed out to Marsha Dodson Field to compete in the alumnae field hockey game. The first half was the current team versus the alums. The second half consisted of the current team mixing with the alums and their families. There was plenty of action and a couple of goals during both halves! The next event was not held until around dinner time, so both the team and alums were able to take advantage of being on campus and catching up with old friends for the rest of the afternoon.
At 6:30pm, the team and the alums met in the Kaplan Room to commence the mentoring dinner. After a bit of mingling, Kimmy Gardner '04, CFHA Mentoring Chair, discussed CFHA's vision of the mentoring program and got the group talking about what the career-related events are that players in certain classes should be aware and what were ways that CFHA's mentoring program could be helpful. These hardy discussions made everyone hungry, and the group spent the rest of the dinner chatting and getting to know each other. Towards the end of the night, CFHA presented the two graduating seniors with a gift to officially welcome them to the Cornell Field Hockey Association. Thank you to CFHA's own Carissa Mirasol Nee '04 for designing these banners that were presented to the seniors! Check out one of them below. (Recognize anyone?!)
Early on Sunday, April 29th, the alums gathered with the team for the final time, enjoyed a delicious brunch and heard an update about the state of Cornell from Cari Hills '98 before heading home. A huge thank you to all of the alums that were able to spend the weekend in Ithaca. It was so great to see so many of you, and the current team was so appreciative of your presence at the weekend and your support throughout the year! A special thank you to Katie Bradshaw '08, CFHA Special Events Chair, for all her hard work in putting the weekend together. We cannot wait to share more details, pictures, videos and a few other anecdotes from the weekend in the next newsletter! Until then....
Yours in field hockey,
The CFHA