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Keele Day 2020
On Friday 3rd July, we held our first virtual Global Keele Day. The event would
usually see us celebrating all things Keele with campus and worldwide reunions
and events, including our annual Philanthropy reception for donors and
volunteers.
After making the difficult decision to
cancel our calendar of events due to
Covid-19, we decided to still celebrate
all things Keele and reunite Keele
graduates across the globe, but
virtually instead.
Keele alumni, staff, students and
supporters were able to get involved on
the day by sharing a memory of their
time at Keele, or by posting one of our
virtual postcards on their social media
profiles. We were delighted by the
response we received from university
staff, departments and our alumni, who
shared photographs and memories.
Check out the hashtag #KeeleDay on
Twitter to see what was posted on the
day and relive some Keele memories.
The day itself also included a video
message from our Vice-Chancellor,
Professor Trevor McMillan, who shared
some of the exciting things currently
happening at Keele. Throughout the
day we posted about the amazing
work Keele is doing in research and
sustainability and shared some photo
archives from the 60s and 70s, as a
nod to our Class of 1970 graduates,
who would have been celebrating their
golden anniversary since graduating
from Keele. We also shared virtual
tours of our beautiful campus, which no
Keele Day is complete without, a short
video tour of the Keele Observatory,
kindly filmed by Observatory Director
Dr Jacco Van Loon, and enjoyed
a performance by the Acapella
Society, who have benefited from the
generosity of alumni and supporters
through the Keele Key Fund.
In the evening, we challenged you
to put your general knowledge to the
test with our special Keele Day quiz,
which took place on the official Keele
University Facebook page. We
were joined by alumni from
all over the world, including
California and Toronto, as well
as Jakey the dog! With up to 60
participants, it was a fun way
to end the virtual celebrations.
If you missed the quiz and
would still like to put your
general knowledge to the
test, you can watch it here:
www.facebook.com/watch/
live/?v=743697719731756
and try to beat the highest
score recorded, 17/25.
Keele reunions are a
wonderful chance to
meet up with friends
and such a vital part of
any Keele Day celebration. A virtual
reunion took place for alumni based
in the USA and Canada, as well as a
virtual reunion of student sabbatical
officers, past and present.
Whether you shared a memory, joined
in the quiz fun, or simply followed us
on the day, we would like to say 'Thank
You'. We hope we brought a bit of
Keele to wherever you are in the world,
and we look forward to welcoming you
back to campus as soon as it is safe
to do so.
Tim Gibbs, Class of 1970, celebrating in Canada