1979

Congratulations! And many thanks to each of you!

Together with about 69 percent of your classmates, you broke a whole raft of fundraising records for the Lone Pine College. In an e-mail announcing the College Fund Awards, our head agent Peggy Epstein Tanner wrote: "Our class shattered so many records, and our performance was invaluable in helping the overall performance of the fund and in raising the sights of the other alumni classes. We have so much to be proud of and, personally, I am most satisfied by the fact we worked as a team. The commitment of many of you to personally reach out and contact classmates was a real key to our success."

For the 2004-2005 Dartmouth College Fund Awards,our class—our band of sisters and brothers—won the Dartmouth College Fund Committee Award "for the best all-around achievement post-15th-reunion classes." As Peggy points out, "This is the big Oscar and we won it! We also received many other awards and citations and it is because the class of '79 is awesome!" Not only was paid participation the highest ever in our class history, but we also won the Class of 1953 Award "for the greatest number of donors" across all classes this year. We even exceeded the participation percent of the 25th reunion class of 1980.

Special thanks go to Dave Philhower for motivating the team and for his inspired, personal e-mail campaign. Major kudos go to George Stone for leading a new effort to contact classmates who either had never given or had stopped giving since 1999. We had five "never-givers" donate for the first time and 28 classmates contribute again after five years or more on the sidelines. Ken Beer chaired the participation committee. Burr Gray led the quick-caller campaign as the deadline approached. All four classmates and Otho Kerr won the Dartmouth College Fund Chairman's Citation for Outstanding Performance. Great jobwell-deserved all around! Peggy received the James B. Reynolds 1890 Award for Outstanding Class Leadership 26-35 years. As one classmate wrote about Peggy, "One thing must be said is 'Peggy Tanner gits it done. On behalf of the class, thank you, Peggy, for your quiet, inspired and results-driven leadership.

Burr Grays latest quick-caller group included Colleen Bartlett, Dave Wolff, Custis Glover, Deb Jennings, Fred Lindberg, Gail Frawly, Hank Young, John Currier, Libby Roberts, Mark Winkler and Steve Hufford. Burr had lost a few quick callers earlier; he'll be looking for anyone who would like to join the effort to reconnect with classmates. With a class of a thousand, we have about half a million intra-class (or one-on-one) classmate connections. Working as a quick caller might be your chance to develop some of your 999 connections! As the seasons circle faster, this number will only get smaller.

Why do we give to the College? As one classmate who has given each of the past 26 years wrote, "Even my husband asks that, and doesn't understand. It has to do with a sense of belonging and connections, duty, school spirit, sentimental memories and a desire to give back something, however little it may seem.

Classmates are already discussing how we can do even better next year. Maybe to reach a 75 percent class participation level? Dare we say even 79 percent?

17 Southview, Pleasantville, NY 10570;mwinkler@marthastewart.com