ALUMNI MEMBERS OF THE OUTING CLUB
Early in February a joint committee of the Alumni Council and the Outing Club Council addressed a circular to all the alumni, offering them the opportunity to become life or sustaining members of the Club. The response has been gratifying, bringing in to the Club thirtyone life members and one hundred eight sustaining members and incidentally $2095 of new funds. But it has, above all, shown the appeal which the Club exercises through its ideals on the imagination of alumni throughout the country. Parts of a few of the letters returned with memberships are quoted for their illuminating comments:
From Fresno, California one alumnus writes:
"Being, if my memory serves me correctly, a charter member of the Outing Club, I am glad now to make response to the call and only regret that I cannot just at this time make it a life membership.
"I shall not be able this winter to avail myself of any of the privileges of .this membership ; but as I am with you in spirit, I shall derive value received in knowing it helps the cause.
"Some one of these days when I have arrived on Easy Street financially I am going to take the necessary time oft and. follow that Dartmouth trail to its end and back, because I know it will be well worth the effort.
"We engineers seldom know where a year hence will find us unless we become content to settle down in a permanent job and by so doing settle deeper and deeper into the rut, which God forbid.
"With the hope that your campaign will receive the. support it deserves and that the Outing Club will continue always to blaze the trail for Dartmouth, I am
A LOVER OF THE HILLS OF OLD NEW HAMPSHIRE,"
From a former president of the Club:
"I think that the new drive for sustaining and life memberships to the Outing Club should be a great help. One little urchin that I know out home in Melrose, who is about 13 years old, and who has a newspaper route, told me last night that he is going to send $5.00 of his money so that he can be a member of the Club. He hopes to enter Dartmouth a number of years hence. Certainly that is the true Dartmouth spirit!"
A Buffalo alumnus writes:
"I am sure if the alumni know that they can use those cabins during the summer months that'a large percentage will gladly take advantage of the privilege."
From Alabama, dated February 11: "I am enclosing a check for $5 for which I wish to be registered as a sustaining member of the Dartmouth Outing Club.
"I found your communication stating the needs of the Club on my arrival at my office this morning. I had just finished a walk of about half a mile. The air is soft with a kind of creamy feel and is full of the odor of the big pines. Violets are blooming in beds in the front yards and borders of walks. The mocking birds are singing as—well, there is no northern bird that can compare with our mocking bird! The day is beginning with just the same tonic effect that the late spring days in Hanover give.
"And when I opened your communication the first thing to greet me was a picture of snow in front of Dartmouth Hall! Homesick! Why this Southland is wonderful; but if a man has ever seen the snow piled up in front of Dartmouth Hall, there is nothing here that can keep him from being homesick when he gets a reminder like that. The Outing Club was just being organized as I was about to leave Dartmouth; our longest winter trips in those days were to Prexy's Garden, although I did have one trip to Holt's Ledge. But, wherever you fellows go after college, if it is where there is no snow, but green lawns and violets and roses and mocking birds, beautiful as they are, a sight of the snow in front of Old Dartmouth Hall will make you feel just as I feel this morning after receiving your appeal for funds. I wish I could do more; but if my five dollars will help some fellow to have the same kind of a remembrance that picture conjures up for me, here is the check."
From the Assistant Director of the Roosevelt Wild Life Forest Experiment Station:
"I am intensly interested in the leaflet just received briefly describing the value of this feature of the College. The Club was not organized until after "my day" (Class of 1907), but one or more unofficial groups of camping and mountaineering enthusiasts in those days were intimations of the fine movement already crystallizing. I have several very strong reasons for wishing to be identified with this Club.
The Treasurer of the Outing Club will still be glad to receive alumni memberships. These may be obtained on writing him at the rate of $5.00 for a sustaining membership or $50.00 for a life membership. He also states that the certificates of membership will soon be mailed to those who have already joined. It is hoped that the alumni will learn to know and appreciate from personal experiences the rare opportunities that the Outing Club offers.
