It's Time To
Earn Your Hat Pins!
My Dear Alumni,
Today, we launch our first-ever Alumni Engagement Campaign. The campaign, which will run until the end of the calendar year (December 31, 2025), has as its goal 100% participation from our alumni.
It’s an ambitious goal, yes! But since when has Wyoming Catholic College shied away from a challenge?
To help us reach this goal, we’re making use of our new hatpins. How, you ask? Let me set the stage: As many of you know, Commencement 2024 featured a bit of a twist on our beloved graduation traditions. The Stetson each graduate receives upon completion of the program has always been an “informal” (if beloved) part of our Graduation Day festivities, but 2024 marked the first time it served as part of the formal academic regalia. Gone, the ubiquitous mortarboard (and tassel) that is present at all other college graduations, replaced by a black cowboy hat and a hatpin, bearing the College’s official brand and the year of graduation.
While the Classes of 2024 and 2025 were the first to benefit from this new tradition—a change that was far too long in coming, I’m sure some of you will say—the College is hoping to “retrofit” as many of your Stetsons as possible. And so, for every one of our graduates who signs up for a recurring gift of $10-a-month (an annual gift of $120), we will send the pin that corresponds to their graduation year. (We’re not leaving you out, non-graduates! While the hat pin itself is being reserved for graduates, we’ll be sending along along a new collection of stickers we’ve designed for the College, so you can still publicly proclaim your affection for your alma mater. And the same goes for you, Classes of 2024 and 2025!)
To achieve our ambitious goal, we need your help. First, we ask you to participate yourself. As I was reflecting on the growing number of graduates, I realized that if each of the young men and women who have received diplomas from Wyoming Catholic were to donate at the $120 level, we would be able to raise nearly $60,000 each year. And if every student who has been blessed to call WCC their alma mater were to join in this challenge? We could raise just under $100,000 annually!
Even if the annual commitment is not right for you at this time, please consider giving something to your alma mater between now and Graduation. 100% participation would be a wonderful message to pass along to our supporters:
Those people who have known the College best—her graduates, who have spent four years immersed in this extraordinary educational environment—have ALL given back, so that others may experience the same transformational education they received!
The second way we need your help is just as important: Pass this message along to any alumni friends you know, to ensure it gets to everyone. It is the reality of a young alumni base (such as ours) that many of you move around with great regularity, and we don’t always know where you are. So if you can ensure this message gets to every alumni in your circle of friends, we know it will get to everyone.
And third, please encourage one another to participate! We’ll be sure to report back on the campaign’s progress, including which classes have been most responsive and most generous. It’s not a competition, of course…but it’s kind of a competition, if we’re being honest. To ensure that gifts are correctly tabulated (and to make it easier for you to share with your classmates), we’ve created individual pages for each class, as well as a general page for non-graduates. Please make use of these pages, which you will find at the bottom of this page.
Thank you for considering joining this campaign, and may God bless you.
Father Deacon Kyle Washut, President
president@wyomingcatholic.edu
