By Madelyn Braho · Staff Writer
Usually when a college club has been around for 87 years, most members are no longer involved. But with the Grove City College Outing Club, graduation doesn’t mark the end of membership.
The Outing Club was established in 1938. According to Alumni Secretary Julianna Jacobs, members never stop being members. “There are alumni that still regularly return to the cabin that graduated in the seventies,” Jacobs said.
That cabin is one of the most unique aspects of the club: It’s owned by the alumni.
“If any of the alumni has any involvement, Tom Morris is the most involved,” explained Outing Club Vice President Erien Schwab. Tom is known for telling stories about how the college has changed since the seventies, as well as tales of his two dogs.
“It’s really cool to see how culture has changed and just to gain wisdom from him,” Jacobs said.
Alumni have their own organization, which is led by Lee Morrisson. “The alumni do a ton of stuff with each other,” Sam Rees, the president of the club, said. “The alumni organization is very active and they still put out their own news reports.”
Every summer, alumni come out to the cabin to do maintenance and repairs that students can’t manage on their own. They also have a yearly outing trip of their own: a canoeing trip in Canada that current students are invited on.
The club is very active even beyond alumni involvement. Members visit the cabin weekly in addition to other trips. “Our main goal is to take students on trips that they might not have been able to go on living at home,” Schwab said.
Trips vary, from skiing to hiking through Carolina marshes. On one trip, members had to stand in as park rangers. “The website of a national park that we went to told us that it was well kept, and then we get there and an hour in we’re using hatchets and knives just to whack our way through,” Schwab recounted.
The club also puts on a hike at the cabin overlook toward the start of the fall semester where the stars are clearly visible.
Members come up with trip ideas, and it’s almost entirely student led. “If you have a suggestion for something you want to do, even if it’s something that none of us have done before, don’t say, ‘oh well, that’s not something the Outing Club does.’ We’ll do it,” Rees encouraged.
In order to make this possible, the club reimburses members for the cost of trips up to 70%, according to Schwab. This is possible because of their fundraisers, including pie baking in the spring, organized by the vice-president, and the concession stand. The stand is run in cooperation with Parkhurst.
According to students, having the alumni be a part of the club is a huge benefit. “That’s one of my favorite parts about the club. It’s pretty rare that alumni from all over the country come to a certain place near Grove City every single year,” Jacobs said.
The upcoming pig roast on Oct. 26 will be another opportunity for students and alumni to interact. A pig is cooked in a firepit for 24 hours, and alumni and students from all around bring their families.
“Everyone’s invited,” Rees said.
