Story by Ashley Beall
Photo courtesy of Kelly Tafoya

The Drake University Alumni Association sets up events across the U.S. where alumni come together and meet neighboring Bulldogs. From the East Coast to the West Coast, all the Bulldogs share one thing: their love for Drake.

The National Alumni Board of Directors sets up three nationwide events that allow alums to make connections with fellow Bulldogs. The first of these events is “DU Good Day,” a national day of service where alumni across the nation come together and set up philanthropic projects. This past year over 400 people throughout the U.S. came together and helped make a difference within their communities.

The second event is “Drake Me Out to the Ball Game” where Drake alums and their families get together and attend a professional baseball game. All of the participating cities attend baseball games, except for Kansas City, where residents attend a soccer game.

The final event the association puts on  is a national game watch. This is usually led by alumni who want to host or put together an event to watch a nationally-broadcasted men’s basketball game.

While all of these events are somewhat new, the Drake game watch was the first of the three events to be put together by the National Alumni Board.

“The board wanted to find a way to bring Drake into the alums’ communities,” Blake Campell, director of alumni relations at Drake, said. “The game watch was a perfect way to help rally the alumni wherever they live, across the country or around the world, and to bring them all together at the same time.”

The national Drake game watch isn’t just for alumni — current students are also invited to attend. Over winter break, the Drake women’s rowing team headed to Florida for winter training and was invited by a group of alumni to attend its game watch.

“I think it’s (an) awesome way to get alumni together and reconnect and still show support for the school,” first-year rower Alexandria Lueck said.

The J-term class in D.C. also met with alums to go bowling in the White House.

All of these events are hosted by alumni who received emails from the alumni association.  Each event receives a box of Drake items from the alumni association to decorate and have raffles with prizes.

The events continue to grow each year with more and more Bulldogs attending each one.