25 Years of Reunions: The After-Arbor Adventure

By Brian Shaw, Professor of Art

In 1991, several of my college friends — SAU alumni, like my wife and me — set up a weekend for our group to get together. Some of us were married, some were still single. None of us had kids. We had no idea what life would have in store for us over the next 25 years. It was appropriate, then, when we titled what would become our annual reunion “the After-Arbor Adventure.”

At the start, we met in a condo near Traverse City. Over the years, we tried some weekends at group members’ homes and met several times at the Howell Nazarene Campground. For at least the last 15 years, we’ve gathered at Somerset Beach Campground. We’ve shifted the date around several times but have found that a weekend around Mother’s Day each spring usually works the best for the most people.

It takes real commitment to meet regularly with old friends. Life gets busy — especially as our kids have grown older and become involved in different activities. Yet, the result of our commitment is a strong sense of Christian community. The addition of spouses and kids has only changed our group for the better. Our kids know each other like cousins; they talk about the memories they’ve made at our annual weekend reunions and how they can’t wait until the next one!

Our friendships that started in college have become deeper and more profound. We’ve walked through suffering and loss together and known that we could count on each other for prayer and support. We continue moving into new phases of life: our children’s weddings, empty-nest syndrome and grand-parenthood are likely right around the corner. The great thing is that we’ll be able to walk through this new territory together, connected by lifelong Christian friendships that began at Spring Arbor University.

Our regular reunion attenders are: Brian ’90 and Lisa (Lake ’91) Shaw, Steve and Jenni (Klever ’91) King, Mark and Lori (Case ’91) Hutsell and Marc and Tracy Crisenbery ’89. Our dear friends who attended regularly for many years but had to pull back due to distance and schedules are: Jane (Stevenson ’90) Ehrman, Lynne (Graf ’90) Hoffmire, Todd ’92 and Julie (Krampien ’94) Barlass, Todd ’91 and Kristen (Nowlin ’91) Zeller and Tiffany (Dietzman ’91) DeGraaf.
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