{"id":123091,"date":"2020-05-13T16:37:02","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T22:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=123091"},"modified":"2020-05-14T12:48:56","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T18:48:56","slug":"alumni-association-works-to-send-care-packages-to-graduates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=123091","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Relations works to send care packages to graduates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Alumni Association has worked behind the scenes to put together care packages for graduating students. Pictured: Furry helper Hayden works through a meowtain of legacy cords.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the celebratory events\nand activities for graduating seniors have been cancelled due to public health\nconcerns. But UCCS staff members from across the university have found creative\nsolutions to honor the achievements of the Class of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of these creative solutions have come from the Alumni Relations office, which typically plays a large role in pre-Commencement festivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt became apparent that this semester, we weren\u2019t going to be able to offer Grad Bash or other activities for our graduating students,\u201d said Lisa Bartholme, assistant director of alumni relations and annual giving. \u201cBut we still wanted to celebrate our graduates from afar and honor the connection that we normally build with them face-to-face over the three months prior to Commencement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way that the Alumni Association has found to honor graduates\nis by sending a care package \u2013 or \u201cswag bag\u201d \u2013 to their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of weeks, the Alumni Association partnered with offices across campus to gather t-shirts, swag, class gift and legacy cords, cords recognizing military affiliation and other meaningful items for the packages. Each swag bag is personalized for the graduating student and includes a letter welcoming graduates into the 47,000-strong UCCS alumni body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of that work has happened behind the scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the last six or eight weeks, I\u2019ve had swag bag stuffing\nparties in my basement with my husband and our two cats,\u201d Bartholme remarked. \u201cSo\nfar we\u2019ve sent out more than a thousand bags to our graduates. Every bag is\ncustomized, so it took a very elaborate labeling system. It took a week or so just\nto think about how to execute it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Each alumni care package is personalized for the graduate.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Along with their registration for the bags, students had the\nopportunity to submit comments. Many of them simply thanked UCCS for the years\nthey spent at the university. Others expressed sadness at not being able to\nwalk at this spring\u2019s virtual Commencement ceremony \u2013 though all graduating\nstudents are invited to participate at either the December 2020 or May 2021\nceremonies \u2013 but also thanked offices on campus for finding creative ways to\nacknowledge their accomplishments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you so much for making the normal events of the weeks\nbefore graduation possible,\u201d one submission read. \u201cI felt like I was going to\nmiss out on the excitement that I have seen others experience before\ngraduating. Despite difficulties, you have helped me to feel both seen and\ncelebrated. I really appreciate all of your hard work!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bartholme is simply glad to have made a connection with the\nClass of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hopeful that these care packages established a\nconnection and a touchpoint with the Alumni Association,\u201d she said. \u201cUsually\nthat work happens over three months on campus. We see them at Grad Bash, they\nvisit our office, we talk to them when they pick up their legacy cords.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that in this new virtual world, our graduates felt a little love from our office, along with the acknowledgement that we all wanted to celebrate them in-person \u2013 and we still wanted to find a creative way to honor them and all of their accomplishments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Graduating students who have not yet registered for a swag bag can still register for an alumni care package<\/a> online. All graduates are encouraged to stay up to date with news and access virtual resources and support on the Alumni Association website<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UCCS staff members from across the university have found creative solutions to honor the achievements of the Class of 2020. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":123097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[61,107,42,332],"class_list":["post-123091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","tag-advancement","tag-alumni-relations","tag-commencement","tag-more-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/680x450-Communique-8.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-w1l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123091"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123122,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123091\/revisions\/123122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/123097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}