News & Events

News, Events & More

Spring Football Ticket Reminder

Posted: 4/5/2019

Get ready for the 2019 Navy football season! Single game tickets, season tickets, and Army-Navy tickets are all on sale through NAAA, which means tailgating season is finally something more than a blip on our radar. Remember, if you order a parking pass one of the options is to park alongside the tailgating tent – just be sure to to include our location (Spot 12) when you order your pass. GO NAVY, BEAT ARMY!

QOD: ’96 Class Project Donations

Posted: 12/3/2018

Here’s some additional gouge from Brian Reardon based on recent questions he has been fielding about donations and the class project.

Q: In addition to/instead of pledging $30 for 96 month to our Class Gift, I want to make a tax year 2018 donation to the US Naval Academy Foundation. How can I make sure the donation is allocated to the 1996 Class Gift?

A: If you are donating by phone, or if you get a call soliciting donations, make sure to tell the telemarketer that you want to give to the 1996 Gift. If filling out a form you received in the mail, include the 1996 Fund Numbers on your form. The 1996 Class Gift includes the below Fund Numbers:

50% – Class of 1996 Bench Conservation support (69960200/Y18CG1996)

27% – Class of 1996 Project Based Learning support (66960100/ Y18CG1996) 

8% –   Class of 1996 Athletic Excellence support (68960200/ Y18CG1996)

15% – Naval Academy Annual Fund (69000000/ Y18CG1996)   

As discussed previously, percentages can be changed to suit the desires of the donor. Please contact Brian if you have any questions!

Army-Navy Pre-Game Class of ’96 Brunch in Philadelphia

SIR, YOU NOW HAVE 5 DAYS UNTIL NAVY BEATS ARMY IN FOOTBALL, SIR!!! In lieu of an outdoor tailgater, we are having our annual class gathering for brunch the morning of the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia. If you’re in town for the game, come join your classmates for a no-host social (i.e., everyone covers themselves) at Tir Na Nog, which is centrally located to many hotels and public transportation near City Hall (see map).

For numerous reasons, hosting a tailgate in Philly is just too difficult and we like to meet up somewhere warm. Everyone can order what they want (see menu), it is kid friendly, and you can come and go as you please. Tir Na Nog is located on Arch Street in Center City, right adjacent to both the SEPTA and the subway lines, so we are just a short walk from the express train to the game. It isn’t required, but if you RSVP to Nagel Sullivan with how many will be your group, he can refine the size of our reservation.

BEAT ARMY!!!

Giving Tuesday: Notes About Gifts and Pledges

Posted: 11/27/2018

Don’t forget that donations are tax-deductable, and that corporate matching can really boost our giving potential. Here’s a message from Brian Reardon, our Class Project Officer, about donations:

Class of ’96,

Giving Tuesday is a great opportunity to make a tax-deductable gift or recurring pledge to the Class of 1996 Class Project!

Thanks to the classmates that have signed up for our $30 for 96 month pledge drive and to those that have directed their annual USNA Foundation donation to our Class Gift or have taken the extra step to set up corporate matching with their companies! You are putting us on the right path for our 30th reunion gift!

In the News: Mark Mhley Takes Grand Prize for Re4ormed

Posted: 11/15/2018

As some of you may have seen from the on-line voting period last month, Mark Mhley recently won a competition for startup funds for his new business venture, Re4ormed. Mark was awarded the grand prize ($15,000) by the StreetShares Foundation for their Veteran Small Business Award in Orlando after competing with over 100 contestants. In addition to the cash prize, Mark also won a year of mentorship from the Boston Beer Team, including a one-on-one coaching session with Jim Koch, the CEO and Brewer of Samuel Adams beer. Continuing the legacy of ’96ers who have left active duty and are poised to make their mark in the business world, Mark has created a concept that will have a tangible, lasting effect on all of us here in the Chesapeake Bay area. We are all looking forward to following your venture. BZ!

Link to article in the news: Re4ormed

From the President: ’96 Annual Update and Fall COCP Report

Posted: 11/13/2018

Email sent via Classmail 11/12/18

Greetings classmates,

I’m emailing out our annual update this year (last year I tried the Facebook video feature but most didn’t take advantage of it so back to email). I will continue to use Classmail for the more “official” announcements to reach all of those not on Facebook. Remember that we also have a website (this one right here!) that Cara keeps up date date and has done a LOT of work to get up and running.

SAD NEWS

I hate to start off with unfortunate news, but this week we lost our classmate Jeff Dixon. Funeral service/visitation will be Thursday 1:00-4:00 in Westminster, MD. Please keep his family in your thoughts. (Link for details)

CLASS GIFT

For some time, we have been talking about our 30^th Reunion Class Gift and our effort to raise $600,000 is support of USNA. We have decided to lead the way with a new pilot for raising money for Class Gifts. Rather than rely on a few large donations, we want to push for record levels of smaller donations and much larger participation rates than is the norm. To that end, please consider making a minimum pledge of $30 a month for 96 months ($2,880 total over 8 years).

Our project consists of Conservation of the 1^st/2^nd Class Benches (see previous post for photos), Project Based Learning, Athletic Excellence, and the Naval Academy Fund. It does not seem unreasonable that we could get the 208 classmates we need to reach our $600K goal.  In fact, we would love to blow past that participation rate. Please spread the word and reach out to your Class Officers or Company Reps with any questions.

We had hope to get this drive up and running for on-line donations, but USNA Foundation issues with their software provider is delaying progress. Please excuse our 20^th century methods and please donate the old-fashioned way to help us reach our pledge goal before the Army-Navy Game! Just email,scan, fax (seriously? what is a fax?), or call in your pledges. Details are on the downloadable pledge form: Class of 1996 Pledge Form $30 for 96 months

POC is Brian Reardon (Brian.reardon@1996.usna.com)

Last note –  to those that give to other priorities (Rugby, Crew, D&B, Cyber, etc.) please consider supporting our Class Gift in addition to your other annual donations. To those that plan to give more than $2,880 over the next 8 years, feel free to up your $30 pledge, make larger annual gifts, or supplement your current giving by adding a pledge to our Class Gift.

25TH REUNION

The planning for our 25th Reunion is well underway. The Committee has chosen Air Force weekend, 01-03 October 2021, as the tentative dates for our event. This choice allows the group to move forward with planning and vendor negotiations. Expect the dates to be finalized when the football schedule is published in Winter 2021. Please feel free to contact me directly if you want to contribute or help with the planning.

POC is Thomas Leahy (leahyt@gmail.com)

COUNCIL OF CLASS PRESIDENTS (COCP)

This year, Cara Albright attended the COCP on 8 Nov. Although this was a very abbreviated meeting, there were a few things that she wanted to pass along:

• Suicide Prevention – This initiative began with ’98 in response to their own personal situation (50% of class losses that are not operational are due to suicide) and will be discussed at great length at the spring ’19 COCP.
• A lot of discussion on reunions (lessons learned, costs, alternative venues, etc…).  All these things have been fed back to our Reunion Planning Committee.

COMPANY REPS

We are still looking for a few more volunteers to be their company rep. It’s really not that much work but helps when we need to reach out to large groups.

Looking for reps for 7th, 26th, 29th, 32nd, and 34th still….

You get to help us track down your company mates and make sure they are getting all the information on class news.

FOOTBALL TAILGATE

Another awesome year is almost over (JUST HAVE TO BEAT ARMY!!). Each week is like a mini-reunion and we often get people that are on work travel for the week to stay an extra night to come to the game on Saturday.

The donations in the tailgate kitty pay for all of the sustainment (~$3000 a year). This year, all of the prices went up pretty significantly but we are still about breaking even. All the funds we receive to the paypal account help to pay for any of the larger upgrades (e.g., eventually we will need a new trailer, etc). If you feel like throwing a few dollars that way to help make our spot one of the most envied tailgates, please send them to paypal at USNA1996Tailgater@gmail.com

POC is Nikki Battaglia (n.battaglia96@gmail.com)

There may be a few 96 jerseys (link here) left if you didn’t get a chance to get your personalized one!

ARMY/NAVY GAME

As usual, many of us will hit the town Friday night. Some of us will try to meet up so let me know if you want to join. Saturday, I’ll do the standard no-host social at Tir na Nog in Philadelphia starting about 10:00. Every year they allow us to hog a section of the restaurant to stay warm, eat, and drink before the game. Hopefully the weather will be better than it was last year.

 

And with that, I’ll wrap up this update.

Nagel Sullivan

Class President

BEAT ARMY!

In Memoriam: Jeff Dixon

Posted: 11/10/2018

From Matt Holman – I’m heartbroken to announce the loss of a ’96 classmate. Jeff Dixon passed away last Sunday. A giant personality, hugely talented human being, friend to all and 12th Co. legend, he’ll be missed. Services will be held in Westminster, MD next Thursday afternoon. Details are below for any in the area or from afar who would like to honor Jeff.

For those in the area, call hours are Thursday, 15 November at Pritts Funeral Home and Chapel, Westminster, MD (see link for details, directions, and obituary).

DC Metro Area Open House for Prospective USNA Candidates

Posted: 10/10/2018

The DC chapter of the USNA Alumni Association is hosting a Fall Open House on 17 October for students from Virginia, Maryland, and the District interested in attending the Naval Academy. Candidates from 7th through 11th grade and one parent are funded by the chapter. It is a cool event every year! Please check out the registration link (below) and spread the word to friends and neighbors.

Registration

Please contact John Costello if you have questions, have trouble with the registration form, or make a game-day decision. You can also call the chapter directly at 703-960-6804 to get added to the access roster.

’96 Class Gift and Annual Donations

Posted: 10/9/2018

Email sent via Classmail 10/9/18

‘96,

A note from our Class Project Chairman, Brian Reardon:

Although we are waiting for the new Naval Academy Foundation website to be fully operational before we formally kickoff our Class Project fundraising (expected November 2018), I wanted to give you information so if you donate to the Foundation during their annual fund drive, you can choose to give to the overall 96 CLASS GIFT or one of the subsets of the class gift (like the bench refurbishment).

From the 96/Foundation MOU:

“Class Project: The Class of 1996 has elected to support conservation of the First and Second-Class Benches and their supporting plinths and cannon (Bench Conservation), Project Based Learning (PBL), Athletic Excellence (AE) and the Naval Academy Fund (NAF).”

The overall fundraising goal for the project is at least $600,000, comprising four components:

(50% of the total goal) for the Bench Conservation

(27% of the total goal) for Project Based Learning

(8% of the total goal) for Athletic Excellence

(15% of the total goal) for the Naval Academy Fund

If you don’t like these pre-fixed percentage, then feel free to choose your own percentages; but they must be one of these 4 to count toward our 30-Year Gift. And if you don’t like these 4 choices, then feel free to choose whatever you would like.

As a reminder once we kickoff the campaign (~Nov), we will experimenting with a method for Class Participation by establishing a pledge of $30 a month for 96 months. Think of it as a subscription service like Netflix. We expect to have a direct webform provided to the Class soon, but if you want to get in early, you can set up that pledge with the Foundation by calling (401) 295-4100. If you get a solicitation call or choose to mail in a new pledge with the form provided in Shipmate, you can also set up a recurring pledge. The quick math is that $30 for 96 months is a yearly pledge of $360 for 8 years. This aligns with our 30th reunion.

More to follow once we have a webform for our Class Gift. Our goal is similar to the Navy-Marine Corps Relief….100% contact.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me any questions.

Brian Reardon

brian.reardon@1996.usna.com

   

’96 Navy Football Jerseys

Email sent via Classmail 7/27/18

Classmates,

This was posted on Facebook but we wanted to reach all of you that aren’t on there.

Nikki Battaglia set up a deal with a company to purchase personalized Navy jerseys for $130 (at-cost) and part of the proceeds will go to our class gift that we just established!  It’s a win for everyone.

Just follow the link, order your jersey (I might suggest 96 as the number), and they will mail it to you directly.

https://www.onthefield.com/products/Custom-Navy-Midshipmen-Under-Armour-Football-Jersey-Imprinted-or-Hand-Stitched.html

Here is the link for the kids jerseys.

https://www.onthefield.com/products/Youth-Custom-Navy-Midshipmen-Football-Jersey-Imprinted-or-Hand-Stitched-By-Under-Armour.html

There is no deadline but we don’t know how long they will keep it open for the deal.

If you know someone that isn’t from our class, they could still buy one and put whatever other stupid number they want on it….and we get the $30 toward our class gift!

• USNA Website
• NavySports.com

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