This year as the Orange Line passed my seat during the Founders Day Convocation I saw many familiar faces. My parents, former colleagues, former classmates, former students and others who have been part of my life at various times and in various places.
Friday evening we enjoyed visiting with my reunion class at the Decades Reception. These ladies have been friends since the fall of 1974 when we all lived on the 3rd floor of McCuskey together as freshmen. (The photo includes a few significant others we have picked up along life’s way.)
We had a great time telling stories and laughing and sharing about the many things we have done and accomplished in the 40 years since our graduation from WVWC.
We had a good laugh about some of our favorite WVWC memories…..box walking in the fall leaves while singing Pumpkin Carols, Campus Pizza deliveries when we couldn’t find a ride clear out to Hills Plaza to the old Pizza Hut. And, of course, the time my roommate signed me up for the bowling team as a joke, only to discover that the joke was on us because unless I actually did sign up they wouldn’t have enough for a team. And homecoming parades and floats like this one were such fun.
Also at the Decades Reception my husband and I ran across some friends who were attending their very first class reunion – his 50th – and were able to catch up on the news since we last saw them more than a dozen years ago.
This is the very nature of the Orange Line. That line weaves throughout our lives and ties us all together.
One of my students in my Legacy of Dreamers and Giants class (a future member of the Orange Line) turned in an assignment last week in which she referenced a copy of the Sundial in 1973. In that issue was also an article entitled And they Called it Wesleyan written by Jamie Wellman. 
It was about college history, and had been researched in many of the same places I am finding such information now. It turns out that she was a member of the class of 1973 – which was having a reunion this year as well. So, I stood by as the class of 1973 had their reunion photo taken at the Decades Reception……and I found her! I told her that I had read her articles, and about DreamersAndGiants. We found that we had much in common. You can read her articles here.
And they Called it Wesleyan, part 1, by Jamie Wellman. (Pharos 9-26-1973, p. 8)
From the Roaring 20’s til Now, by Jamie Wellman (Pharos 10-3-1973, p.12)
Saturday evening I watched one of my former students (a member of the class of 2019) perform in the wonderful play at the Virginia Thomas Law Center for the Performing Arts. 
Sunday morning, I went to chapel to hear Rev. Douglas Miller, Class of 1988 (and classmate and theater contemporary of my sister and brother-in-law) give a wonderful sermon. His parents, also alumni, were there and it turned out that they were friends with my parents. And HER mother was a graduate of the Class of 1923 and had been a Chemistry major studying with Dr. Nicholas Hyma. She was one of the first members of the Benzine Ring.
All in all, the Orange Line was winding around and around my heart all weekend. These were but a few examples. All around me the same was happening to person after person.
There is a beautiful poem about the Orange Line written by Charles K. Dick. Although Charlie was not a graduate of WVWC himself, he captured the spirit of the college beautifully. He was Assistant Director of Marketing and Communication from 1998-2000 when he wrote the poem.
The Founders Day Program had this to say about the Orange Line Poem:
Ever since 1890, students have entered West Virginia Wesleyan College, where their minds were challenged, their talents nurtured and their hearts inspired. As they completed their studies, they moved on to share their knowledge, experience and values in new settings. Former Wesleyan students have carried the spirit and substance of the College into the global community and into almost every form of human endeavor. Wesleyan’s alumni have formed a constant connection between the College and the world beyond – and both College and world have been strengthened. It is appropriate on the celebration of Wesleyan’s Founders Day that the heritage of the College be symbolized as a line of former students who represent more than 14,000 alumni.
The Orange Line
I am the orange line – My beginning was long ago
I have no end – I am perpetual
My source is in the West Virginia hills
My reach embraces the world
I am in America’s small towns – I am in her great cities
I cross the seas
I grow
I am your warm, enduring memories
I am your shared experiences
I am your friends, your teachers
I am your link to the past
I am your dreams for the future
Wherever you are, there too, am I
I am you – You are Me
We — are the orange line.
The DreamersAndGiants project celebrates those in the Orange Line. One of our first semester students in my class this fall put it beautifully. Hannah said, “With DreamersAndGiants, you are connecting generations of Bobcats living and dead.”
Wish I had thought to put it just that way.