Attention, members of the classes of 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001! You are invited to come back to the 'Burg Sept. 2 and reconnect with those you haven't seen in years. The JMU football team in its season opener will take on Bloomsburg State, and the Office of Alumni Relations will sponsor a tailgate for Fall Reunion participants and their guests. The tailgate starts at 3:30 p.m. on Godwin Field. The Leeolou Alumni Center will be open earlier in the day for alumni to reconnect and see some of the newest parts of campus. Tours and special reunion activities begin at noon and continue until the tailgate starts at 3:30 p.m. Call the JMU Ticket Office, mention you are coming back for your class reunion and your football tickets will be with the reunion block. Check the alumni Web site at http://www.jmu.edu/alumni for more details, coming soon.

Spaces are filling quickly for this year's Blass Memorial Golf Tournament, which will be held Sept. 16 at the South Riding, Va., Golf Club. The Blass Memorial Golf Tournament is the key annual fundraiser for the memorial scholarship established for alumnus Craig Blass ('96), who was lost Sept. 11, 2001, in the World Trade Center tragedy. We are very happy to see such great interest from many alumni who read last month's issue of Brightening the Lights of Madison. We appreciate those who have registered to participate and/or sent donations for the scholarship fund. JMU alumni are pivotal to our continued success, and we are grateful for your support. Last year's memorial tournament included more than 100 participants and helped push the scholarship total over the $100,000 mark. If you are interested in playing, sponsoring or volunteering, please contact Geoff Black at grblack22@hotmail.com or Jason Sfaelos at jasonsfaelos@CollegeTransit.com for more details. You may also visit the tournament Web site and download a registration form.
— By Jason Sfaelos ('96)

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Kentucky Alumni Chapter members connect at Churchill Downs.

Jeff Harper ('87) has rallied about 30 JMU alumni as active participants in the Kentucky Alumni Chapter. "There are about 125 alumni working and residing in the greater Louisville area, and we have a very diverse mix, ranging from those who graduated in the '50s and '60s to more recent graduates," Harper says. Harper is no stranger to alumni leadership. Before moving to Louisville, he served as president of the JMU Alumni Association board and president of the Richmond Alumni Chapter.

The goal of the Kentucky Alumni Chapter is to educate alumni and the community about JMU. "We want new people to get involved," says Harper. "I receive a lot of e-mails from JMU graduates who are moving to the area and want to get involved. They've never heard of JMU in Louisville. We're starting to get our name out there because JMU quarterback Justin Rascati transferred from Louisville. We need to participate in some local college fairs, as well. A lot of Virginia schools have tables at these fairs, but I haven't seen one for JMU. We're starting to get some kids from Kentucky to apply to JMU because of our efforts."

Chapter events have included watching JMU football on TV and a "day at the races" at Churchill Downs. Neil Quinlan ('95) and John Leake ('87) are helping Harper plan a back-to-school picnic and a caravan to the Appalachian State game Sept. 9. "The chapter is a fellowship of people who have shared a common experience," says Harper. "Local chapters are a great way to network." When Quinlan moved to Kentucky, he contacted Harper, who helped him find a job. Leake, an alumni board member, contacted Harper to get involved with the chapter. "It would be wonderful if we could have a social event, an educational event and a family event in one year," Harper says. If you would like to get involved with the Kentucky chapter, contact Harper at harp2888@bellsouth.net.
— By Darcie Roberge ('06)

A big thank you goes to Jacqueline W. Clinton ('94), who served as the inaugural president of the JMU London Chapter. Clinton is moving back to the United States. In its first year, and under her leadership, the London Chapter sponsored a dinner, two happy-hour events, two welcoming events for JMU Study Abroad students, a Sunday afternoon tea with Study Abroad students and a day at the Henley Royal Regatta. Scott Schucht ('96) will take the helm of the London Dukes. If you're living in London and are interested in participating in chapter events, e-mail Scott at scott.schucht@gmail.com. Clinton asks alumni in the Little Rock, Ark., area interested in forming an alumni chapter to contact her at jacquelinewindclinton@yahoo.com.

Dallas-Forth Worth alumni are invited to attend a happy hour and a Frisco Rough Riders game Aug. 19. The happy hour at Chili's in Frisco begins at 5 p.m., and the game starts at 7 p.m. Admission to the game is $15, but if 20 or more to attend, the chapter will receive a better ticket price and a souvenir visor. Please RSVP, asap, to Bryan Roberts ('95) at 972-467-1788 or Bryan.Roberts@brinker.com.

Join the JMU Alumni Chapter of Richmond at its annual Crabfest Aug. 5. Cost is $25 per adult; children 13 and under eat free. Feast from noon to 7 p.m. on delicious fresh crabs, shrimp, hot dogs, corn-on-the-cob and more. For more information, please contact Mary Jones ('91) at MaryJones@alumni.jmu.edu or 804-550-1786. See all event details at http://www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/JMD/eventcal/eventcal.cgi.

Sixty-three Baltimore/Annapolis Chapter members had a blast as the Orioles hosted Texas Rangers July 15. Alumni celebrated pregame at Edgars Billiards and then enjoyed some great seats at the game. Join in the chapter's next event, a Crab Feast Aug. 20 at Mariner's Landing. The event begins at 2 p.m., and there will be live music from 3 to 7 p.m. Register online at http://www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/JMD/eventcal/eventcal.cgi. For more information, contact Lesley Stein ('01) at lstein@umbc.edu or 443-394-0146.

Baltimore/Annapolis Chapter alumni connect before an Orioles game. Click on photo to enlarge.

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Crabfest 2006 will be held Sept. 16 from noon to dusk at Fort Belvoir's Castle Park. Tickets are $25 per person (kids 13 and under eat free). The ticket price includes all you can eat and drink: crabs, shrimp, hot dogs, corn-on-the-cob, cake, soda and beer. For more information, please contact Mike Jones ('94) at msjones@jones-cpas.com or 703-508-5709.

Twenty Rocky Mountain Dukes enjoyed July's Third Thursday on the patio at LoLa. It was the first chapter event for several alumni. There are more than 800 Dukes in the Centennial State. Don't miss out on your chance to attend our EPIC end-of-summer party and scholarship fundraiser in August. Keep up to date on all of our chapter activities by registering for our e-mail updates at the chapter Web site, www.rockymountaindukes.com. If you have a suggestion for a chapter event, or if you want to be involved, please e-mail chapter President Sean Harrington at seantharrington@gmail.com.

Chapter leader Sean Harrington ('96) enjoys the dinosaur-shaped chicken fingers at July's Third Thursday event. Photo by Brandon Kacmarski ('04).

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The weather was great and the drinks were frothy. The Chicago Dukes held their monthly Purple Thursday happy hour in the beer garden at Justin's in the bustling Southport corridor area of Chicago. With the goal of exploring new diverse neighborhoods with fellow alums every month, Purple Thursday continues to be a resounding success. The next Purple Thursday is Aug. 10 at Bar on Buena. Alumnus Chris Hriczak will host an end-of-the-summer rooftop barbeque Aug. 26. It should be an enjoyable event as the rooftop overlooks Navy Pier, where that evening there will be fireworks. For more details, please visit www.chicagodukes.com. The Chicago Dukes have also established a book scholarship for a JMU student. Funds in the amount of $350 have been raised from the Cubs game and Ravinia for this worthy cause.

Alumni enjoy the atmosphere at Justin's: (l-r) Sarah Cope (holding future Duke Eric Morgan Cope Jr.), Eric Cope, Jennifer Armstrong, Chris Hriczak, Ken Horinko, Angela Keaveny, Valerie Martin and Bevin O'Connor. Click on photo to enlarge.

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Tidewater alumni continued their Third Thursday Happy Hour tradition in July at Baxter's on Granby Street in Norfolk. Nine alumni showed their JMU pride and spirit along with our future Duke, Kayleigh Madison Jones, who is just over a year old. Don't worry, we are already teaching her the JMU Fight Song so she can be fully prepared at her first Homecoming game. A few Tidewater alumni also helped out with the local Freshman Send-Off Picnic. Next week, the Tidewater alumni will have their biannual planning session to develop more exciting events for next year. Please join us and bring all of your great ideas. For more information on the Tidewater Dukes, visit www.jmu.edu/alumni/chapters/tidewater.
— By Kelly Stefanko ('94), chapter president

The classes of 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971,1981, 1991, 1996 and 2001 are invited to the Homecoming Gala, Friday, Oct. 20. Ticket information and event details will soon be available at the alumni Web site, http://www.jmu.edu/alumni.

The JMU Centennial Celebration Web site at http://www.jmu.edu/centennialcelebration/ contains approximately 50 stories about the rich and fascinating history of Madison. We'd like for there to be more stories. If there's a particular topic you would like to see addressed on the Centennial Web pages, contact the JMU Centennial Office: Centennial Director Fred Hilton, hiltonfd@jmu.edu, or Assistant Director Debra Long, long2da@jmu.edu. Many articles will also appear in the upcoming book on JMU's first 100 years that will be available in fall 2007.

• Sept. 2 — Fall Reunions and first home football game (vs. Bloomsburg State)
  http://www.jmu.edu/alumni and http://www.jmusports.com
• Oct. 7 — Family Weekend
  http://www.jmu.edu/parents
• Oct. 20-21 — Homecoming 2006 and Homecoming Gala
  http://www.jmu.edu/homecoming

For more detailed information on any of the above listed events, please call the JMU Office of Alumni Relations, toll free 1-888-JMU-ALUM, or visit the online calendar.

James Madison University broke its previous fiscal-year record for private-giving contributions to the university and increased twofold the amount received over the previous fiscal year. Closing its books June 30, Madison received a total of $13.3 million in cash and pledges in 2005-06, overshooting by $3 million the previous record of $10.3 million raised in 2003-04. The record dollars also is nearly double, a 98.7 percent increase, over private giving received in 2004-05. JMU kicked off its first-ever comprehensive capital campaign March 15, setting a campaign goal of $50 million. The Madison Century capital campaign, which is raising private dollars to support teaching and learning at JMU, will conclude at the end of JMU's centennial celebration in 2008. Regarding the record year, JMU President Linwood H. Rose said, "Thank you to all our friends who are helping to create one of the leading comprehensive universities in the nation."

The Duke Club, the JMU Athletic Department's fundraising arm, also broke its record in receiving unrestricted gifts in 2005-06. Unrestricted gifts totaled $794,778, a 17 percent increase over 2004-05. Overall, JMU athletics received $1.85 million in 2005-06, including restricted gifts earmarked for scholarships and other specific areas.

Fifteen schoolteachers from Harrisonburg, Staunton, Rockingham and Augusta school districts returned July 18 from a five-week trip to Kenya in sub-Saharan Africa where they lived in rural villages, assisted in schools and learned Swahili. The 35-day Seminar in Kenya for Virginia Teachers, which also included three JMU students and three JMU employees, was sponsored and supported by JMU's Office of International Programs and the U.S. Department of Education's Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Program. The seminar teachers collected donations before the trip and provided desks and other supplies to Kenyan schools. The teachers, selected from local elementary, middle and secondary public schools, are obligated to develop curricula based on their experiences in Kenya. The seminar was directed by Dr. Jennifer Coffman, an assistant professor and cultural anthropologist at JMU who has worked in Kenya for 16 years and has directed JMU's Kenya Summer Program for the past three years. Dr. Teresa Harris of the JMU College of Education assisted the local schoolteachers with curriculum development, and Lorie Merrow from the JMU Office of International Programs was project manager.

Visiting Virginia teachers and JMU faculty and students join for a farewell photo with residents of the Kakamega district of Kenya. Click on photo to enlarge.

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Wesli D. Spencer, JMU's past student body president and a May 2006 graduate, delivered a keynote address July 17 at the 97th annual NAACP Convention in Washington, D.C. Spencer, who majored in political science and musical theater at JMU, spoke at the convention's Youth Night Mass Meeting. The 2006 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People convention was held July 15-20 in the Washington Convention Center.

Wesli Spencer

The Lifelong Learning Institute — Madison's elderhostel-style program that offers non-credit, leisure learning courses, brown-bag lunches and daylong trips to adults age 50 and above — will celebrate its 10th anniversary Aug. 16 at JMU's Festival Conference and Student Center. Institute Director Nancy Owens said the LLI program plans to expand into northern Rockingham County and south into Augusta County. Classes are led by various faculty and community members who are experts in their fields. Two five-week sessions will be offered this fall with courses on a variety of topics such as meteorology, yoga, economics, Einstein, Shenandoah Valley history, the Old Testament and archaeology, bridge, gourmet cooking, "The Da Vinci Code," American musical theater, Hawthorne and Thoreau, Shakespeare, medical ethics, modern Islam and Taoism. For more information about the anniversary event or LLI, call 540-568-2923 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., or go to the LLI Web site at http://www.jmu.edu/socwork/lli/.

The 2006-07 men's basketball schedule, announced Aug. 2, includes road contests with teams from two top conferences, an in-season tournament and participation in ESPN's Bracket Busters series. "We're excited about our schedule," said third-year coach Dean Keener. "We'll have 14 home games for the second straight season and will take part in ESPN's Bracket Busters games. We have a non-conference schedule that will help us prepare for the challenging CAA regular-season schedule. We open with an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent and play a Big East Conference team; those games will help us prepare for the rigors of the CAA." The Dukes start the season with their first-ever meeting with the ACC's Wake Forest Nov. 11 on the road and play the Big East's Georgetown Dec. 5 in Washington, D.C. JMU plays its Bracket Busters game Feb. 17 on the road. Other non-conference games are with Virginia Military Institute (Nov. 22), Wofford (Nov. 25), Eastern Kentucky (Nov. 28), Dartmouth (Dec. 10) and Youngstown State (Dec. 19). The Dukes' in-season tournament will be Dec. 29-30 at the University of Central Florida in Orlando with Texas Pan-American and New Jersey Institute of Technology completing the field. JMU opens its 18-game CAA schedule Dec. 2 at Old Dominion. (For the complete season schedule, see the box at right.)

JMU's sophomore outfielder Kellen Kulbacki from Hershey, Pa., was named the State Player of the Year in a vote conducted by the Virginia Sports Information Directors — adding to a long list of accolades bestowed upon him following the greatest offensive season by an individual in the 37-year history of JMU baseball. Kulbacki was earlier named the National Co-Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball, was a finalist for both the Dick Howser Trophy and Brooks Wallace Award and was named a first-team All-American by six organizations — Baseball America, CollegiateBaseball/Louisville Slugger, American Baseball Coaches Association, College Baseball Foundation, Pro-Line Cap/National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Rivals.com. He was also the Player of the Year in the Colonial Athletic Association. Teammates joining Kulbacki on the All-State first team were senior first baseman Nate Schill of Audubon, N.J., senior second baseman Michael Cowgill of Lexington, Ky., and sophomore pitcher Ryan Reid of Portland, Maine.

Women's basketball coach Kenny Brooks announced July 27 the hiring of Laphelia Doss, a 1998 graduate of and four-year assistant coach at Eastern Kentucky, as assistant coach at JMU. "I am excited to have Laphelia Doss join our coaching staff," said Brooks. "She has a wealth of knowledge to bring to our program, and I feel she will fit in wonderfully here at JMU." As a player Doss was a three-time Ohio Valley Conference choice and an OVC all-freshman selection in 1995. She was named the most valuable player of the 1997 OVC championship tournament after leading the Colonels to the league championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Franklin, Ky., native holds a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism and a master's degree in sports administration from EKU. Doss replaces Krista Kilburn-Stevesky, who was named head coach at Hofstra in June.

Kevin Warner ('02) has been named assistant sports media relations director at JMU, returning to his alma mater after two years as the first full-time sports information director at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg. Warner will serve as the primary contact for baseball, men's cross country, field hockey, men's indoor track, men's and women's swimming and diving, volleyball and wrestling. While a JMU student, he worked two years in the sports media relations office and held an internship position covering baseball during his final semester, and he also served a one-year internship in the Colonial Athletic Association. Warner begins his JMU duties Aug. 15.

Come out and join Duke Club members, students, alumni and friends in supporting the JMU football team on the road. Pregame receptions will be held two hours prior to kickoff at the following Saturday away games:

• Sept. 9 — Appalachian State, TBA
• Sept. 30 — Virginia Military, 1 p.m.
• Oct. 28 — Richmond, 3 p.m.
• Nov. 11 — Villanova, TBA
• Nov. 18 — Towson, 1 p.m.

Rally behind Coach Mickey Matthews, preseason All-Americans Tony LeZotte, Corey Davis and Justin Rascati, and the rest of the Dukes for another exciting season of Atlantic 10 football. Go Dukes!! For detailed information, contact the Duke Club at 540-568-6461.