Scholarship Winners with their interviewers: Tony D'Anzica, Rishi Ratan (scholarship winner), Jay Puntham-Baker (scholarship winner), and Mo Chen

Our annual club meeting and dinner was held on Wednesday, June, 17th at Clancy's in midtown.  There were more than 40 in attendance to share in some cocktails, see the presentation of our club scholarships and hear from our guest speaker.

Tony D'Anzica, our Scholarship Chairperson, started off the evening by discussing the competitiveness and quality of applicants for this year's club scholarships.  We were fortunate enough to award two $2,000 scholarships to students in the local area.  The scholarships, which are solely funded by our club membership, were awared to two highly qualified students.

The scholarship winners:
Jay Puntham-Baker from Morganville, New Jersey
Rishi Ratan from Westbury, New York

We were also delighted to have Gary Smith, Emeritus Associate Professor and Associate Director of Bands, join us from campus.  Gary's presentation, Best Band in the Land: A History of the Marching Illini, was well received by the crowd of Alumni and friends.  It was truly a joy to hear Gary share his stories of the band and help the crowd recollect some of their more fond memories of campus.

We also held elections of club officers where all current club officers were re-elected.