The Cub Give and Gather, hosted from Oct.16 to Oct.18 by Loyola High School’s Advancement Department, celebrated alumni. Graduates were invited to a weekend of virtual activities, including a class reunion, a day of giving and a live-streamed mass.
Mathematics teacher Paul Pascale ’78 said, “I enjoy taking part in these reunions because I get to see my old classmates, talk and have fun with them.”
Friday night was filled with virtual reunions solely for classes ending in ‘5 and ‘0. These Classes held free, 40-minute Zoom meet-ups as pandemic-accommodating substitutes for in-person reunions. Many activities changed, such as the auction, which debuted at last year’s reunion; however, the overall turnout remained high.
Principal Gifts Manager Michael Gilhooly ’88 said, “Although this year will be on Zoom, we will still be expecting a large turn out in terms of people. Although we are restricted from doing certain activities, we are always trying to look for new ways to do things and, of course, new things to do.”
Gilhooly added, “The donation requirement isn’t about the funding, but rather the participation. In fact, COVID-19 restrictions allowed the school to invite more people than they otherwise would have been able to. Saturday’s and Sunday’s events were open to every class, following LHS tradition.”
The winner of this year’s Alumni Class Giving Competition, which ran from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, is the class of 1979. The award of the most participation goes to the class of 1988. To close out the competition, a number of Loyola legends, including Pat Salvaty, Tim Moscicki, Bill Thomason and Terry Caldwell, played Loyola Squares, a spin-off of Hollywood Squares.
Pascale stated, “I try to attend as many as I can. As a faculty member, I am able to connect with a lot of different people and alumni as well.”
Gilhooly also hopes that through extensive planning and effort, the alumni can relive their campus years — especially their Cub Spirit. Finally, Gihooly expressed that the best part of the weekend was seeing Cubs from every stage in their life and reminiscing about their time at Loyola.