Our annual Penn State Alumni Spring Banquet comes but once a year, and is always a festive occasion to look forward to. This banquet marked yet another "Biennial Year," in that we extended our thanks to Vic Folwarczny, our outgoing president on two years of outstanding service and welcomed our new president, John Glaser, with congratulations and best wishes for his forthcoming two year term. The evening's highlights were the colorful stories of Mike Zollars, the former Nittany Lion mascot from Beavercreek. The setting was one of our favorites, the Fireside Room of the Wright Patterson AFB Officers Club. Penn Staters on hand to enjoy the evening were: Mike and Mary Beth Anthony; Art Feliciangeli; Vic Folwarczny and Sandy Wallace; Randy and Ann Gallas; Bob and Janie Gehman; John and Joan Glaser; Bob and Edie Kreider; Sonia Leach and her dad, Earl; Dave and Peggy Romanko; Sam and Kandi Tahmoush; Jim and Sally Valeri; John and Ruth Whittaker; Jerry and Collette Zollars; and, Mike and Jenny Zollars.
Chapter doyenne Edie Kreider and hubby Bob were there, as you would expect. In addition to all the things she does to coordinate and communicate this event, Edie's creative genius is also evident by the clever "meal tickets" everyone received upon arrival. She took it upon herself to laboriously hand-stamp each and every ticket. Are you having Grilled Lime-Basted Chicken with citrus rum sauce and rice pilaf? Or Grilled London Broil with rich demi-glaze and garlic mashed potatoes? This bill-of-fare — complete with carafes of white zin and red merlot at every table — was superb! Hats off to Chef David Glynn for an excellent repast.
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We were pleased to find out that Sonia Leach, pictured here with dad Earl, has returned to the Dayton area and renewed her chapter membership. We'll be seeing a lot of Sonia in the future because she accepted the post of chapter vice president. Earl hails from Mifflintown, PA, and likes to travel in his motor home. He was visiting Sonia at the time of our banquet.
Mary Beth and Mike Anthony are another couple you can count on to be a part of our signature events. Mike is a chapter past president and serves on the board. Mary Beth teaches, among other things, web development at her school. She and Bob Gehman discussed the pros and cons of web page editors Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver.
We think it quite fitting to feature the wives of the incoming and outgoing presidents. Here we see Joan Glaser (l) and Sandy Wallace (r), the respective partners of incoming president John Glaser and outgoing president Vic Folwarczny.
It's always a pleasure to meet and welcome newcomers to chapter events. Meet Sam and Kandi Tahmoush. We hope to see more of them and get to know them better in the months ahead.
You can count on seeing Jim and Sally Valeri at virtually all of our major events. They're pictured here with Art Feliciangeli, another ardent Penn State supporter.
Although we don't see them as often as we'd like, Ruth and John Whittaker are usually at our Spring Banquet.
We just couldn't pass up a photo op that included (left to right), incoming president John Glaser, guests of honor Mike and Jenny Zollars, and outgoing president Vic Folwarczny. Mike and Jenny are still newlyweds, in that they were just married on January 3, 2004.
Dave and Peggie Romanko are all smiles as they enjoy the evening. Dave serves on the board and coordinates our support of ThinkTV membership drives and auctions.
Art Feliciangeli experienced serious medical problems last year. We see him here expressing his thanks for the outpouring of cards and get-well wishes from his fellow chapter members.
And here's our keynote speaker of the evening — Mike Zollars! Mike provided an interesting, entertaining, and highly informative talk on what it was like to compete for the honor of being selected as the Nittany Lion mascot, as well as some of his experiences in fulfilling his lion mascot duties. He noted that April 20 was the 100th anniversary of the lion. Mike was a cheerleader for two years prior to being the mascot. During that time he subbed for the lion 50 times, learned the ropes, and discovered he loved doing it. His tryouts extended over an entire semester, and included being interviewed by a 12-judge panel and performing an original 2 minute skit. After he was chosen as the lion mascot, he said his most exciting event was the 2002 football game with Nebraska, which Penn State won 40-7. After his talk Mike took several questions from the floor. Mike and Jenny traveled from Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, to be with us this evening. The board and members of the Dayton Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association were honored to have them as our guests.
Our new prez takes the podium with a few well-chosen words. A former Nittany Lion wannabe, John felt it only appropriate to use the Nittany Lion mask to help reinforce his message.
Bob Gehman was honored by the chapter for his ongoing work in supporting the chapter's web site. Here we see him receiving a gift copy of The Nittany Lion from John Glaser.
Outgoing chapter president Vic Folwarczny makes concluding remarks about his experiences over the last two years.
As a token of appreciation for his contributions, Vic received a "blue and white face-painted football FANatic suitable for suctioning to your car window," shown here. Not shown here is the gift certificate to Olive Garden he received.
Penn Staters gather around the 36" by 24" poster the chapter presented to Mike Zollars. The poster picture was taken at the Penn State - Ohio State football game in Columbus on October 26, 2002. It captures the excitement chapter members felt when Mike — as the Nittany Lion mascot — visited our lofty section of the "Horseshoe."
No picture gallery of this Spring Banquet would be complete without a shot of the Zollars family. From left to right are Jenny, Mike, Collette, and Jerry.
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