Homecoming - A great time had by all
North Bay was awash in a sea of blue and green this past weekend as alumni, students and friends celebrated Homecoming Weekend 2011.
The weekend exceeded all expectations, selling out the Alumni Awards on Friday night and the massively popular Tailgate Party, Saturday afternoon. The Dr. David Booth lecture also filled the Nipissing theatre to capacity, with many attendees listening to the lecture in the overflow option, the Vittorio Fedeli Business Centre.
On Friday night, in the beautiful Harris Learning Library, Nipissing honoured 30 graduates at the Alumni Awards. Ted Weltz (BEd’96) received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Ashley Brown (BA’06) took home the Alumni Achievement Award, and 28 other graduates were presented with Influential Alumni Awards.
Saturday’s events began at 11 a.m. with Booth’s engaging presentation, Why is my BlackBerry sitting on a pile of Books? The Interaction and Intersection of Printed Forms and Screen Forms in our World of Education.
Meanwhile, on the soccer field, the sun was shining and Pints and Pancakes was kicking off while the Lakers soccer teams warmed up to play the Ryerson Rams. The volunteer Homecoming team, decked out in bright green Lakers Hockey jerseys served some 1,200 pancakes and a few pints were also consumed.
At 2:30 p.m., down at Memorial Gardens, Lakers hockey head coach Mike McParland and his assistant coaches were lacing up their skates for the first annual Alumni and Friends hockey game. The game marked the triumphant return of Ryan Maunu, the first graduate of the Lakers hockey program.
The Tailgate Party started in high gear at 4:30p.m. with classic rock riffs and monster drum beats courtesy MLC, featuring Schulich School of Education drummer and professor, Rob Graham. Roughly 500 people attended the sold-out Tailgate Party, including TSN’s Cabbie, who worked the crowd to everyone’s delight.
At 7 p.m. the puck dropped to launch the regular season home opener for the Lakers hockey team. With just over 2,100 fans in attendance, the atmosphere was perfect to welcome the Lakers to the ice for their third season and the team didn’t disappoint. The crowd got a little antsy after the home team gave up the first two goals, but were rewarded when the Lakers stormed back to score five unanswered goals, including a sweet coast-to-coast rush by Captain Brodie Beard to tie the game.
“Wow, what a tremendous weekend!” said Alumni Association President, Tina Benevides. “It was really wonderful to see so many graduates and students having fun together and celebrating our university. I’d like to offer a special thanks to all our volunteers, the Alumni Association and the Office of External Relations and Advancement for all their help in making Homecoming a success.”