HISTORY
What could be more natural than spending time with the people you had come to know and love from Riverbend, outside of camp? Well, that’s precisely what happened, and over time, those things grew to have more structure. For instance, Brad Lambert hosted game nights at his house, Alton Belew invited staffers over to watch basketball, and an unnamed group of staff got together and took over Chili’s for an evening…All of these were great, but eventually staffers started asking each other: what if we made a more organized
It all started with the natural inclination of all Riverbend Staffers to hang out…
effort to reunite? What if there were a way to connect staff from years gone by to the staff that serve now? What if those of us that have served before could be an encouragement to those serving after? What if we could give back to a place that gave us so much more than a summer paycheck? These idle questions eventually turned into what we see now, the Riverbend Staff Alumni Association.
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This all began on July 4th 2019 at a mass, one-day alumni event hosted by the Directors of Riverbend. And at that gathering Cameron Fricke, Brad Lambert, and a few others proposed to set aside some time from the fun and games to see if a concentrated effort could be made to bring the idea of the Association to life. A general announcement was made that day that we would be meeting in the Chapel at 2 (during open waterfront time) to talk about it. Those of us who had talked beforehand were all committed to show up, and genuinely, we weren’t expecting much of a turnout. But much to our surprise, nearly all the alumni present came to our little meeting.
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The brainstorming began with lots of questions and ideas and eventually culminated with the first group of officers being elected and charged with a list of things to do to make the Association legit. Those officers were:
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Nick Ferguson - President
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Emily Kunkel - Vice President
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Kayla Yates - Secretary
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Cam Fricke - Staff Liaison
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Trevor Graeber - Volunteer/Project Coordinator.
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This group would go on to write the first draft of the Constitution and Bylaws, and create and fill the positions of Treasurer and Membership Coordinator with Jamie Andrews and Kerri Watts respectively.
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Of course, life happens and life outside of the Association is important, so due to unforeseen circumstances, Nick, Cam and Kerri had to step down. The Executive Board held a special session and decided unanimously to have Trevor Graeber take over as President. After that the Association was reorganized and two new members were brought on board:
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Trevor Graeber - President & Interim Membership Coordinator
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Emily Kunkel - Vice President
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Kayla Yates - Secretary
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Jamie Wright - Treasurer
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Rene Wallace - Volunteer/Project Coordinator
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Hannah Tapper - Staff Liaison
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This group went on to create the Association as it exists today, organizing efforts and events specially designed to make life at the Bend better. They also organized the First Annual Alumni Retreat in August 2021! It was there, at the first annual business meeting that the final draft of the Constitution and Bylaws was ratified by the Alumni gathered together in the conference room of cabin 10, and the missing position of Membership Coordinator was FINALLY filled by our returning officer, Cameron Fricke.
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It’s been a lot of hard work to get things rolling the past couple of years. However, despite all the work it takes to make an Alumni Association functional, the staff at Riverbend, the Executive Board, and every member the Association has have banded together to create what we have now. And this is only the beginning…
