Operations Team Gives Thanks

By Michael D. Mortensen g91 Published: Nov 02, 2018

Editor’s Note: The Operations Team consists of Michael Mortensen g91, director, Stephanie (Cox) Demorest g93, alumni center coordinator, Dr. Jay Platte g69, volunteer archive coordinator and webmaster, Bill Gerig g61, past president of alumni association and archive assistant, and Sari (Pafford) Harris g88, president of Fort Wayne Heritage Alumni and Friends Association.

When the Fort Wayne Alumni & Friends Resource Center in Brown Gables began in 2009, it seemed overwhelming to know what to do to simply care for our alumni—our original mission. Over time, the staff and volunteers with the guidance and oversight of the Alumni Council, fleshed out our vision to “Care for Fort Wayne alumni by Connecting and Celebrating what He has done all for the Glory of God.” After much discussion, we also created our brand, image, and name, where we focus on where our lives intersected at Rudisill Blvd. and Indiana Ave. 

Now, as the Fort Wayne Alumni Center, approaches the 10-year mark of fulfilling our mission, 

In the last decade we have accomplished the following:

  • Gathered, organized, digitized, and shared 10s of thousands of archive materials that are now secured stored on Amazon Cloud (Care & Connect)
  • Hosted nine Reunion/Homecoming Weekends with close to 1,000 alumni participating from all over the world (Care, Connect, & Celebrate)
  • Initiated an Alumni Volunteer Prayer Team that has prayed for hundreds of alumni & friends (Care & Celebrate)
  • Sent 444 Words of Solace to those who have lost a loved one (Care & Connect)
  • Published 18 magazines and 77 e-newsletters (Connect)
  • Engaged with over 1,400 friends on our Facebook pages two to five times a week (Care, Connect, & Celebrate)
  • Sent out 52 Baby t-shirts (Care)
  • Created a mobile-friendly website to connect with our alumni far and wide (Connect)
  • Planned and promoted Scripture Engagement Seminar that 160 people attended
  • Sold hundreds of wearables, replicas, books, and CDs/DVDs (Celebrate)
  • Used 263 volunteers who have given over 34,000 hours of service
  • Received awards for magazine and programming from more than one organization
  • Presented awards to numerous alumni including athletes for their achievements, service, and performance (Care & Celebrate)
  • Raised enough money to become self-funded and volunteer driven. Now have around $400,000 in an endowment that supplements our program budget, and we award approximately $35,000 in scholarships to dependents of our alumni association and former employees (Care).

It truly is remarkable looking at what has been accomplished with less resources than we began, yet God has been faithful, staff and volunteers loyal, and ministry partners supportive.

So much work has been done—praise God for His faithfulness as people have given of their time, talents and treasures! To God be the Glory!