On February 10, the ninth annual T.J. Vassar ’68 Alumni Celebration was held at the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle’s Chinatown International District. A shift from the usual meet and greet where alumni typically stood around and chatted with each other, roughly 60 Lakeside alumni and faculty helped prepare hygiene kits for the Rainier Valley Food Bank for the inaugural “Alum Day of Service.”
“It’s hard to connect with people you know while remembering why we’re here,” explains one attendee, Don Christensen, in response to the service aspect of this gathering, “but we get fed nicely while doing so.” Despite the theme of service, the event was still an alumni reception, so Lakeside supplied ten platters of gourmet food. There were charcuterie boards with more than five kinds of cheese, an assortment of fruits and crackers, skewers, and deviled eggs.
As the plates emptied, the room filled with alumni and their families from all over Seattle. Friendly faces greeted each other and attendees welcomed new people, sat down, and struck up casual conversation. People griped about the Sisyphean task of parking in downtown Seattle or compared their experiences at Lakeside.
At 10:30 a.m., Profe Bensadon, director of equity and inclusion, took the stage to commemorate the alumnus for whom the event was named — T.J. Vassar ’68, a pioneer of diversity who, among other things, was among the first group of Lakeside students to attend the Lakeside Educational Enrichment Program (LEEP), a free summer program for Seattle Public Schools students aimed at preparing students for higher level academics.
“Everyone that I’ve encountered with a T.J. story speaks to his generosity, joy, and positivity,” Profe Bensadon says. “On an intellectual level, he bridged gaps in understanding for people. On a social level, he bridged people with different perspectives and experiences to each other. On a community level, he bridged members of the local Seattle community, the Black community, and other underrepresented groups with Lakeside School.” Profe Bensadon closed her speech by saying “We hope that in the spirit of T.J.’s legacy and life’s work, you take the opportunity to connect with new and known folks today.”
After Dr. Bynum delivered remarks and shared a story about Mr. Vassar, Rainier Valley Food Bank staff Gloria and Attiyya came onstage and introduced the alumni’s task: packing hygiene kits for the food bank. Laid upon several tables at the front of the room were boxes packed to the brim with toiletries. At each round table, around six alumni were instructed to turn their eyes to the centerpiece: several Ziploc bags, markers and pens, and several notecards and envelopes.
Gloria explained that the note cards were for writing notes to the recipients of the hygiene kits and fresh produce from the Food Bank to brighten their day. After the speech ended, alumni jumped right into note-writing, exhausting the pile of notecard paper after an hour and a half of service. By noon, attendees had filled around nine cardboard boxes with these kits, now fully equipped with uplifting notes.
At noon, alumni slowly started to shuffle out as the event came to a close. The meeting room slowly transformed to the state it was two hours before, minus a few stragglers still chatting. Mr. Vassar had once again left an impact, this time not through a program or demographic shift, but instead, through the memories alumni carried with them as they left.
