Club News
The Fort Hill Clemson Club raised more than $100,000 at their 2020 Recruiting Wrap Up through sponsorships, ticket sales and the online auction.
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Club News
AN EVENING WITH THE PRESIDENT
On June 13, 2018, the Baltimore/ Washington, D.C., Clemson Club hosted an evening event at the Kennedy Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. Over 125 alumni gathered along with members of Congress, members of the Board of Visitors and guests from campus for a keynote speech by President Clements. Throughout the evening, guests enjoyed refreshments and heavy hors d’oeuvres, notably the local specialty: Maryland crab cakes.
SPEAKER SERIES
The Atlanta Clemson Club welcomed Rashard Hall ’11, director of career and professional development for Clemson Football, to its fall speaker series on Sept. 21, 2018. Hall and fellow football alumnus Patrick Godfrey ’17 shared details about the PAW (Passionate About Winning) Journey program, which is focused on cultivating leadership in student-athletes through life skills and professional
STUDENT SENDOFF
Three Clemson students in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area arrived at the Twin Cities Clemson Club student sendoff on July 29, 2018, where they met and mingled with alumni who were there to support them as they headed to Tigertown. Guests enjoyed a potluck picnic at the home of host Heather Huck ’99. “The Twin Cities Clemson Club officially formed in 2016, and it has been awesome to see the enthusiasm for Clemson grow in the ‘Bold North,’” said club member Tyler Morey ’10.
TAILGATE KICKOFF
The Smoky Mountain Clemson Club hosted its fourth annual football season kickoff tailgate at the Saratoga Pavilion of Anchor Park in Farragut, Tennessee, on Aug. 26, 2018. Alumni spent time catching up and feasting on a barbecue dinner from the Holy Smokin BBQ food truck.
CHARITY CHALLENGE
On Sept. 12, 2018, the Richmond Clemson Club participated in the Alumni Charity Challenge, a food drive that supports the Central Virginia Food Bank. The event, held at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, brings alumni chapters from all over Virginia together to fight food insecurity in the state. The Richmond Clemson Club collected 1,462 pounds of the total 107,696 pounds collected at the event.
Are you looking to get involved with a local Clemson Club? Go to alumni.clemson.edu and click on “Join a Club” to find contact info, or contact Stewart Summers at ssummer@clemson.edu.
Clemson Club News
On March 14, the Atlanta Clemson Club volunteered with the Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research and their meal adoption program. Club members served lunch at Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital to kids who are courageously fighting cancer as well as their families. The BBQ lunch was donated by alumni Tyler and Juliana Lindley, owners of Freckled & Blue Kitchen in Marietta, and the kids loved visiting with alumnus and Atlanta Falcons star Vic Beasley Jr. The club also welcomed Davis Babb, CEO of IPTAY, to their Speaker Series in March to share about IPTAY’s role in supporting athletics and the University.
Members of the San Diego Clemson Club along with alumni from the Los Angeles area came out to support the men’s basketball team in their amazing run in the NCAA tournament. This group is pictured at the game against New Mexico State, which Clemson won 79-68 to move to the second round.
The Charlotte and York County Clemson clubs helped to make a dream come true for Rock Hill High School student Brandon Dorman, who is living with stage 4 kidney disease. Each club donated $500 to fund his trip to Clemson. Dream On 3, an organization that makes dreams come true for children with chronic illnesses, developmental disabilities, or life-altering conditions, and representatives of the two clubs surprised Dorman at his school with a bus trip for him and his family to Howard’s Rock and a tour of the football facility as well as a chance to meet the coaching staff and players and attend spring practice. Kudos to Richard Doane with the Charlotte Club for getting the initiative started and to Jodie Smith from the York County Club for finalizing the efforts.
The Colleton County Clemson Club recently hosted a Wine and Design event featuring the talents and instruction of local Clemson art student Holly Rizer. Proceeds benefited the club’s scholarship fund for local students.
The South Florida Clemson Club had a nice turnout of 25 for Clemson Day at the Florida Panthers hockey game. Contact Jeff Goodman at jsgclemson@aol.com for more information about South Florida events.
While the Japan Alumni group is not yet an official Clemson Club, some of the more than 50 Clemson alumni and friends in Japan have been getting together for events a few times a year. They are exploring ways to support the University including providing support and guidance to students studying abroad in Japan or alumni moving to Japan for work, as well as finding internship opportunities for students. They are hoping to be the first international chartered alumni club. They gathered in November when Yuki Kihara Horose, study-abroad coordinator for Clemson Abroad, and Carolyn Crist, a student adviser with the College of Architecture, Art and Humanities Global Engagement, were visiting partner institutions in Japan. The group joined emeritus professors Yuji Kishimoto and Toshiko Kishimoto in Tokyo, their hometown, where they received the Japanese national medal of distinction in 2017.
New Clemson Club in the Twin Cities
We are excited to announce that Clemson has arrived in the Twin Cities. The Twin Cities Clemson Club supports not only the Twin Cities areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul, but also welcomes alumni, friends, family and fans from the surrounding areas of greater Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
The Twin Cities Clemson Club started colonizing in late 2014 under the leadership of Tyler Morey ’10. The club held its first unofficial gathering for the Russell Athletic Bowl vs. Oklahoma at Freehouse in Minneapolis. The turnout was great for a cold and snowy Monday evening with 23 alumni, family and friends coming to cheer Tiger nation to victory. After the first event, Morey quickly drafted help from local alumni Kristen Hodgkins Braun ’02 and Paul Wisnewski ’85, M ’87. The club drew even bigger crowds in 2015 for the ACC Football Championship, the ACC/Big Ten Challenge against the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s basketball team, and the National Championship game in January 2016. They also added more members to their leadership team — Heather Lankford
Huck ’99 and Natalie Patzin ’13, M ’14.
Members of the club are thrilled that the Minnesota Vikings drafted two of our young stars, Mackensie Alexander and Jayron Kearse, this spring. The club is planning a caravan to the Vikings Training Camp this summer to welcome Mack and Jayron to Minnesota as their first official event. The caravan is tentatively scheduled for the first Saturday
in August. Find the club on social media: Twitter at @TC_ClemsonClub and Instagram at @twincitiesclemsonclub.
For more information, email the club at twincitiesclub@alumni.clemson.edu.
Alumni gather in Japan
A group of alumni, former faculty, exchange students and current students are beginning the process to form a Clemson Club in Japan. They recently gathered in Tokyo with a group of about 12, including former faculty members Toshiko and Yuji Kishimoto, at an izakaya (a Japanese gastropub) for drinks and food and then went to an Italian bar. They closed out the evening with another mixture of cultures: a traditional Japanese-style event closing punctuated with the cadence count.
Clemson Club Events: Baltimore/Washington, D.C., Club
Members of the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., Clemson Club had the unique opportunity to go bowling at the Truman Bowling Alley Washington, D.C., on February 10, 2016. Once housed in the White House where the present-day Situation Room is located, the alley is now located in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB). Thanks to Mike Palmer ’97, these Tigers enjoyed a tour of the EEOB and two hours of bowling on the most historic and exclusive lanes in the world.
Pictured: Back row: Mike Palmer ’97, Mark Derrick ’91, David Rochester ’68, Catherine Rochester, Ken Bowen ’86, P’18, P’18, Michael Coakley ’91, Spencer Neal ‘95. Front row: Rachael Neal ’97, Elizabeth Jackson ‘06, Elizabeth Bowen P’18, P’18, Beth Coakley ’93 and Holly Cirrito ’95.
Photo from the club’s 6 Degrees of Clemson event:
Fore more information about the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., Club, go to www.clemsonclub.org/.