Happy New Year, fellow Crusaders!
I hope the celebration of Christmas continues to shine in each of your hearts and homes. It is still, after all, the season of Christmas. We still have another day in which to celebrate the joy of the Lord’s Nativity.
Unless you belong to an Extraordinary Form parish in which case you may disregard this sentiment and party on until February.
I, your very humble alumni blogger, am delighted to share with you an exciting new tool available to our alumni.
Introducing: the Alumni Map!
It’s slightly more festive than that sweater your Aunt Bernice wore to midnight mass that had a crocheted baby Jesus beneath the words: “It’s my birthday!”
So just what is this Alumni Map of which I speak?
Thanks to the efforts of some very talented individuals, Christendom alumni now have the ability to stalk one another! I mean, wait… Let me repackage that last sentiment.
When the Alumni Advisory Council first met one of many suggestions that emerged was the idea that alumni should be able to look at a map and see if there were fellow alums in their neck of the woods. Karla and I found that this would have been particularly helpful as we plotted which cities to visit during the Grill’n & Chill’n Summer Tour. So now it’s up and running… sort of.
The alumni map is not as functional as we’d like it to be for the moment. That is because the alumni portal is not yet behind a security wall. One thing at a time. Don’t worry, though, because we’ve already had contractors make us several prototypes. I’m leaning toward the steel and reinforced concrete sample that not only prevents overland border crossings but has a foundation deep enough to stop the drug mules and their tunneling. But we’re talking about the alumni portal, not the southern border so let me come back to that. For the moment, the map will reveal to you where alumni live based on the information we have. What it will not tell you is which alumni live there nor will it give you exact addresses. Even the pinpoints are deliberately only approximate. Look at the samples below for proof.
Here is a worldview of the Alumni Map…
Here is a view showing Irving, TX. One of these dots is my house, one is my brother-in-law Kirk’s, one belongs to the Willards, and one is the Leggio’s. None of these are accurate within a mile but you get the idea. We can see that there is a small alumni community here.
Finally we have a map of the Northern Virginia area. As you can see, the zoom feature would come in hand in such a view.
