Alumni: Winter/Spring 2010

Alumni News 

Mrs. Frances Oveida Gravely Wingfield, 92 of Roanoke, Virginia passed away on Monday, January 18, 2010. She was the widow of W. Tupper Wingfield, Jr.

Frances and Tupper Wingfield worked at Boys’ Home in the 1950’s. As a housemother, Mrs. Wingfield is remembered fondly by alumni for her gift of making others feel special, in addition to making some wonderful hot chocolate on cold winter days. Our condolences to her family and friends.

Boys’ Home Alumni Newsletter
Summer 2010

 Greetings!

Hello to all Boys’ Home alumni and friends. Again, it is time to report to you regarding our association.

I guess we all can tell some exciting stories about the past winter! I am sure that many of you are still suffering from sore muscles and strained nerves from dealing with the ice and snow. This past winter may have reminded you of days past on the Hill. The snowball battles with other cottages, the snow forts and war games played and how good it felt to finally get back to your cottages for a chance to warm up with a snack and hot chocolate. Ahh, for a chance to relive those days!

Our Christmas on the Hill was enjoyable and it was good to see friends of past years and to share fond memories. Boys’ Home provided us with a delicious lunch and a chance to visit with the boys. Many of us enjoyed playing board games, viewing the Christmas decorations at each cottage and chatting with the boys about school, the Hill and sports.
It was great to see many familiar faces of regular attendees, along with some that we had not seen for some time.

Those of you who were at Boys’ Home during the late 50’s and 60’s probably remember Mickey Caviness. It was great to talk with him about his time at Boys’ Home and his experiences after leaving the Hill. Mickey, it was great to see you again and we all hope you will come back for our June meeting. It was also good to see: Rex Hicks from Bristol, Gene Brower from Fredericksburg, Bobby Via, John Dunn, Bob Ramsey, Donnie Wheatley and Paul Siple from Covington, Spike Felty from Greensboro, Randy Powell from Wilkesboro and Dennis Pinner and Bobby Mills from Richmond.

We all understand that the Christmas season is extremely busy with children and grandchildren, church activities and family and friends. All of your association officers including Melvin Dove, Martha Terry, Dennis Pinner and myself understand this. We want you all to know that we appreciate all that you do to make our gatherings fun. Without your support and attendance, we will not be able to continue with our long history of fellowship and helping Boys’ Home with such functions as Christmas Sponsorships, senior graduation gifts/trips and special programs such as the Outdoor Club.

All of these things take money to operate. I also want to express my gratitude and thanks to all of you who, though you could not attend, found it in your heart to mail a gift of money to help us with our activities and expenses.

I want to thank Mr. Wheatley and the Boys’ Home staff for allowing us to have very appropriate meeting places at the Chapel and the Martha Terry Museum. When I am sitting in the museum with my brothers, I feel the importance of what we are doing! It is important that we all work harder at continuing this tradition called the Boys’ Home Alumni Association. I realize that we all have “pet peeves” or “negative feelings” about our time on the Hill. Some of you younger men were not on the Hill very long and you may not feel the same closeness that we older Alumni feel. To us, it was our home!

You younger alumni from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s and up are the future of this Association. We would love to see more of you attending and give yourself a chance to visit with brothers whom you knew while on the Hill.

Let’s all try our best to attend as many June and December meetings as we can, beginning this coming June 26th. Please mark your calendars as a special day set aside to visit your old home. As usual, there will be a full day of activities. We will have a short business meeting at 1:15 p.m. At this meeting, we will need to nominate and elect new officers for 2010-2012. These officers are President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary and Alumni representative to the Board of Trustees. I encourage all of you to be thinking of someone that you feel might desire to serve as an officer. I will also be calling on some of you for assistance in forming a list of potential candidates or to serve on a committee to help develop a list of candidates. I will poll our current officers to see if they would consider being on that list.

Since this may be my last formal letter to you, I would like to say that I have really enjoyed serving as your alumni President during the past 2 years. I have been serving the association for some time and have always strived to encourage our members to realize the great importance and huge potential that each of us have to make a positive impact on the residents of Boys’ Home. When we work together, we get things done.

My goals have been: (a) to work towards making our gatherings fun by adding activities that all of us can enjoy (b) to continue with the same contributions we have made in past years to the Boys’ Christmas sponsorship, the Seniors graduation gifts, financial support to the Outdoor Club when needed and reimburse Boys’ Home for the printing and mailing of our newsletter.

Let’s all try our best to be on the Hill on June 26th! Bring your old clothes and fishing gear for outdoor fun or spend time with the boys. Share your experiences with them.

BHAA President, Jim Miller ‘66
“One of the Few”

Schedule of Events
10 – 11 a.m. Social gathering at Chapel for early arrivals, an
opportunity to visit and share memories.

11 – Noon Free time to visit around the Hill & Martha Terry Museum

Noon – 1 p.m. Lunch at the Alumni Picnic Shelter

1 p.m. Presentation of recognition……

1:15 – 2:30 p.m. BHAA Business Meeting at the Chapel conference room

2:30 p.m. Boys’ Home Singers at All Saints’ Chapel

3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Open activities (Bring your own gear and old clothing)

Fishing, softball game, Open gym/basketball, Outdoor Club Paintball skirmish,

Cottage visits to play cards/board games with residents.

Campus tours - Greer Education Bldg. and Wheatley Center.

6 p.m. Dinner with residents at Ben Parrott Dining Hall
(If you plan to be here for dinner, please let us know)

Links:

E-mail the Alumni Association

E-mail the President of the Alumni Association

E-mail the Alumni Representative to the Board of Trustees

Find us on the Web at:  Classmates.com

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