The road, the friends, and one fun destination
Theta Pi Alpha sisters travel the country to stay in touch
By Sarah Ryan
What could be more fun than going on a road trip with a car full of your best friends?
How about meeting every year to travel the country with them? That's exactly how a group of sisters from Theta Pi Alpha Sorority has kept in touch after graduation.
For the past 20 years, the nine sisters -- who graduated between 1957 and 1960 -- have been hitting travel hot spots across the United States to keep the bonds of friendship strong.
"When we meet, it's as if we never left each other," says Della Greco, BSJ '56 and MS '57. After bumping into one another at an Ohio University class reunion, the sisters decided to take their gatherings into their own hands. "We thought we would have more fun doing it ourselves."
In the beginning, one sister would host the rest at her own home for a long weekend, but soon they decided staying in hotels would be better. No sister would have to accommodate the rest, they could extend their stays, and everyone could kick back and have a fun time -- just like the college days.
So far, the Theta Pi Alpha sisters have visited everything from New York (to see the Big Apple), to Cleveland (some rock and roll fame) and all over California (to find that perfect beach). Of course, they always plan return trips to Ohio University.
Each year the sisters vote where to travel the following year. Their most recent trip was to Houston to celebrate a sister's milestone birthday. Joan Merhar Shulick, BSHE '59, received this extended family birthday surprise. Sisters in attendance included Jeanette Sommers Vosburg, BSCOM '59; Elizabeth St. Andre Kean, BS '60; Janet Dzama Sopko, AA '56; Nancy Peters Lorz, BSED '58; and Della Greco, BSJ '56 and MS '57.
Other travel highlights include taking in the cuisine and jazz clubs of New Orleans' French Quarter; and brushing up on a little history at the Alamo. Sisters Lyn Hlad Balogh, BSED '59, Noreen Rawlins Mienick, BSJ '58, and Mary Lou Schady Theiss, BSED '59, also attended these expeditions.
The act of getting together from so many different places is remarkable in itself. The Theta Pi Alpha sisters are scattered from coast to coast and fly in from their separate origins to meet at one point in a busy airport terminal, so reunions start with that classic airport scene in which, one by one, each sister arrives, is overcome with excitement at spotting her friends, and runs to them, hands waving and arms hugging. One year, Greco says the sisters met at the airport, chipped in, rented a big van, and drove to Sopko's summer house in North Carolina's Outer Banks. (Singalong, anyone?)
The sisters enjoy revisiting their favorite memories from Ohio University. "There were 3,400 kids at the university," Greco says. "We knew everyone on campus."
One of the sisters' favorite activities each year was the J Prom (junior prom), sponsored by the Greek houses. Each house nominated either a king or queen for J Prom and performed a skit complete with costumes. The winning skits (after a vote from all the houses) won the honor of crowning their J Prom king and queen. Lorz was named queen one year, and Joan Shulick made the costumes for everyone involved in that sorority's performance.
The sisters also shared in making chicken wire and crepe paper floats for the Homecoming parade to ride down Court Street.
"Every hole in the chicken wire had to be stuffed with a different piece of crepe paper!" remembers Greco.
Of course, the toasted cinnamon rolls at Baker Center or the 50-cent breakfast on Court Street, which Greco remembers enjoying, made up for the hours of hard work.
After laughing about these memories, Greco explains that it has been easy to keep in touch. "Just try to make the effort," she suggests.
She and her sisters keep in touch by phone and, more often, e-mail. Living far apart could make it easy to slip out of contact, but the memories of Ohio University and the sisterhood it created for these women keep the connections open and the miles they travel together mounting.
This year's trip will be a big one: The sisters plan on hitting the skies with several destinations in one itinerary, including Oakland, Calif., Williamsburg, Va., and Washington, D.C.
Sarah Ryan, BA '09, is a student writer for Ohio Today.
Posted 11-02-2007
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