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In the afternoon, classroom discussions gave way to recreation, and families headed down to the ponds on the lower part of campus to assemble vessels for the annual cardboard-boat race. Students, siblings, and children of alumni built their crafts from boxes and duct tape, waterproofing them with Crisco. Though some of the makeshift boats capsized in the race across the pond, many of the competitors were able to paddle their way to the finish line! 

Meanwhile, parents and alumni faced off against students in a basketball game in the Pope St. John Paul II Athletic Center’s gymnasium. In a close contest, parents and alumni beat out their younger challengers by two points.

Before dinner, College President Paul J. O’Reilly (’84) invited the visitors to St. Gladys Hall Patio for a wine and cheese reception, where he gave an address on the State of the College. “We are in a post-founders era,” Dr. O’Reilly observed. “This is an exciting time for TAC, and now it’s time for us, the alumni, to step up and do what we must do in order for Thomas Aquinas College to thrive.”

Dr. O’Reilly additionally recounted instances of alumni giving back to the College, from returning to serve as tutors and chaplains, to being pioneers in founding the New England campus. As he reflected on a visit from the foundation which would eventually donate the campus to the College, Dr. O’Reilly addressed the parents, saying, “What moved them was the piety and goodness of our students. They gave the campus to us, in large part, because of your sons and daughters and the example that they showed them.”

The whole College community — faculty, staff, students, families, and alumni — then came together to finish out the day with a barbeque dinner on the lawn outside St. Bernardine of Siena Library, where they heaped plates with good food and enjoyed each other’s company. 

At the end of the day, the visitors attended a performance of King Lear in St. Cecilia Hall’s Fritz B. Burns Auditorium. The play, one of Shakespeare’s most devastating tragedies, starred alumnus tutor Dr. John Nieto (’89), who gave a masterful performance of the king’s descent into grief and madness. The supporting cast was equally impressive, with Elena Biegle ('25) as Lear’s loving but misunderstood daughter, Cordelia, while Rose Grimm (’26) and Katelyn Woods (’25) played her cruel sisters. The rest of the cast brought vivid life to the noblemen and servants, who, whether willing good or evil, drive the story toward its tragic end. 

The players captivated their audience with blood-chilling scenes of human wickedness and depictions of repentance and forgiveness, as well as moving them to laughter by some of the more comedic elements of the story. “King Lear was beautifully done,” said Teresa Padilla (’25). “Even though I had read the play as a junior, I found myself noticing things and appreciating a depth that I had not previously grasped. It was by far the most moving performance of a Shakespeare play I have seen.”