by Carol Buck Whitehead '78
This past December 2020 marked my 37th year of consecutive giving to the Alumni Fund. In 1983 I moved to California, was engaged and was employed in the wine business, which was and is my great love. Free of student debt and far from my native New England, I sent off my small check to the fund and felt the thrill of giving back to a deserving friend.
This became a habit, year after year, as I became a wife and then mother. Moving away from the States in 1989, the small checks I sent didn't get much bigger, but they flowed yearly from Scotland, then France, then Scotland, then England.
Giving to the fund was like meeting up with an old friend — both of us changing in ways never anticipated, and yet those very changes keeping us close and relevant to each other.
Moving back to the US in 2017 was quite a change! Dramatic in many ways, but there was my old friend Williams. Now when I gave to the fund, I could earmark the monies for books for students in need or to go directly to support scholarships. This is so satisfying for me, a scholarship kid with a loan, too.
When I am a very ancient lady, perhaps I'll finally know what my years at Williams meant to me. But in the meantime, there's work to do, and I feel privileged to help those at Williams get on and do it.