Category Archives: Locust Walk Talk

Author: Casey Ryan, C’95

Today, I’m going to take a more personal direction on my entry.  Ten years ago I started Philadelphia’s gay (but inclusive) rugby club – the Philadelphia Gryphons

An opportunity to start an amateur team from scratch was starting me in the face and I jumped in full of passion.  Looking back, I realize that working at Penn and launching a team worked mutually to teach me a lot.

It was January 24, 2003 and I was supposed to meet a friend out that night but they had to cancel when a flat tire ruined his plans.  Luckily for me, I had made it out to the bar before getting the call.  (I might be a social, friendly person, but I actually hate those moments when I’m solo in social places.  Yes, somehow, eventually, I start to chat with someone or someone chats with me, but those minutes beforehand are painful).

A scrum is one of the ways to pull a ball in play – akin to lining up at the line of scrimmage in American football.

In the middle of those painful minutes, I noticed a dozen men in a variety of rugby jerseys, drinking, chatting and being gregarious.  Wanting to overcome that wee bit of anxiety that I was feeling, I asked one of the jerseyed men, “Is this all about rugby? I noticed your jerseys.”  I was directed to a fellow with a sign in sheet.  That man, Lars, explained that the Washington Renegades and New York Gotham Knights had planned to come to Philadelphia to encourage the formation of a gay rugby team.  Later, I eventually found out that one of the reasons they were creating excitement for gay rugby was to honor their memory of their teammate, Mark Bingham, who died in United Flight 83 on September 11, 2001.  He lived a bicoastal life and had found so much enjoyment in playing for the San Francisco Fog, that he helped New York start its team.

I was excited. I never played football since my parents thought that it was too violent.  So as a 30-year old, I could make my own decisions, right?  Yet, I was aware of rugby as the most popular sport in Irish and British culture due to my own background as an Irish-American. Plus, I had played soccer and missed the camaraderie on being on a team sport.  This was what could fill a need that I didn’t know I had until I wrote my name down on the contact list that night.

The team photo after a long weekend of playing rugby in Atlanta with Cochetti, C’06, Cruz, C’97, CGS’04, GEX’12 , Ryan, C’95 and Weinstein, G’09.

Within the week after the initial sign up, I received an e-mail from Lars putting all of us interested folks in touch with each other. Replies started to fly out, “It was great to meet all of you” and “I can’t wait to start to play.”  I knew time was of the essence.  Penn’s adopted adage aut inveniam viam aut faciam (we will find a way or make one) rang through my head; if I wanted to play rugby and I needed to make a team…I sent out a reply all e-mail inviting all to meet at Fadó to talk rugby.

That e-mail got some great responses and one of who was a Wharton PhD candidate, Sam C., W’97, GEN’01, G’03, GRW’04, to be accurate, who traveled between New York and Philadelphia who offered to be captain for the first year until the team got on its feet.  As our newly elected captain, he invited John McMullen, who had coached Penn’s Men Rugby Club in 2000, to serve as our team’s first and current coach.

A lineout is another of the ways to pull a ball in play – akin to a throw in soccer.

Named President by acclamation, I saw our first goal for the team as recruitment; there are 15 players on a side in a rugby match and to successfully scrimmage we were going to need at least 30 men.  Like our Regional Clubs, the Gryphons held membership drives – going to the places where our target audience would be, reaching out to them and explaining the excitement of rugby.  Soon after we launched those efforts, Joe Cruz, C’97, CGS’04, GEX’12, Phil Cochetti, C’06, Chris Hatfield, CGS’02, and Dave Weinstein, G’09, joined our team. In six-month’s time, we were able to play our first match and that solidified us as a cohesive group.  Behind the scenes, the club worked to join the Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union (EPRU), our local branch of USA Rugby – the governing body for rugby in the States.  To prepare for recognition by the EPRU, I took a crash course in 501(c)(3) and (c )(7) status and drafting by-laws from my fellow rugby-players whose day jobs were that of lawyer to help me draft our documents.  I use this invaluable information from this exercise to help support my Regional Club volunteers to this day.

By 2004, we had recruited a strong team, including a new Penn player, Joe S., L’04, we had tax exempt status to help earn funds, and we set out to play in the Bingham Cup in London, the biennial international, non-professional, gay rugby tournament started in 2002. This was the vulcanizing events for our young team, traveling to rugby’s birth country to play in the spirit of friendship, sportsmanship and inclusiveness and subsequently winning the Bingham Bowl (quite literately a bowl from the cupboard of the Esher Rugby Club’s Clubhouse.) It was simply amazing.

Obligatory team shot whilst in London, with Ryan, C’95 and Weinstein, G’09.

The team continued on. I stepped down from the Presidency after an amazing two years.  (Another post-graduation Penn thing I’ve learned, term limits for volunteers are a good thing.)  Yet I was still engaged with the board. I would volunteer for events and continue to play. Yet there comes a time when life asks you to move on and I last played my last match in March 2008. I decided to retire from the team that I was thrilled to see come to fruition; work and family obligations were pulling me away from the game and team I loved.  I managed to stay in touch and go to our home pitch in Southwest Philadelphia to watch a match when the Gryphons were playing at home and I wasn’t working the weekend for Penn.

I always felt a warm reception when I was able to make it to these matches.  Some original players still played and would wave hi when they saw me during their warm ups. I had befriended some of the newer folks and they would welcome me over to the team’s camp to watch the match with the club.  I still was a Gryphon.

That’s yours truly running with the ball.

However, I wasn’t going to be allowed to remain a passive member of the club. At the beginning of this year, the current President, Phil Cochetti, reached out to me and dove straight to the point, “I have a big favor to ask and I can’t let you say no.”

“Okay, Phil,” I said, bracing myself.

“I need to ask you to chair our Anniversary Committee. You started this team 10 years and we need to celebrate this milestone.  Plus with all your work in Alumni Relations, you are the only person I can think of to do with me and two other volunteers.”

If anything, Phil is very adept in using brevity to be extremely persuasive, so he had himself a chair. The 10th Anniversary Party is happening at the end of this month.   Over the last four months, I have been relying on my skills in outreach that my class reunion committee volunteers used in order reengage our former players and to encourage them to meet the current team.  The committee has been e-mailing, calling, Face-booking, texting and tweeting to reconnect all members of the team.  I stole a page from Classes and Reunions’ suggestion book and spearheaded an Alumni Day at our Spring season home opening, which served as a pre-reunion event for our Anniversary.

The Gryphons Alumni gathering after the match, “The Third Half” named such since a 80 minute rugby match is played in two halves with Cochetti, C’06 and Ryan, C’95.

Due to my days as a staff writer in Wharton External Affairs, I have been inspired to write equally persuasive joint letters from Phil and me to our players, supports and alumni.

“So this Anniversary gala will be a celebration of the work and dedication of the team over the last ten years from our beginnings to our future which you are an integral part of – we will highlight our history, thank our outstanding volunteers and celebrate the devotion of our current players – all of this will culminate in an official public announcement about what will be a once-in-a-lifetime event for team.  We want you there to join in this excitement.

We call our former players and supporters alumni and invite them to remain active in the day to day life of the team.  Like at Penn – probably because so many of us when to Penn – being a Gryphons is a lifelong relationship with the Club as being a Penn Alumnus starts when you enter campus as a freshman.

Another team photo circa 2005.

In returning back to the club, I have met our newest generation of Gryphons – a group of gentlemen committed to our LGBTA community – where the A standing for our straight allies – and playing rugby to the best of their abilities. In our ranks are several Penn students and a recent alumnus, Femi Fadugba, G’12, Tony Solitro, GR’14, Eddie Goodwin, GR’14, Eric Wong, GR’16 and Hank Bink, GR’16. The Gryphons are seasoned and new to the sport, gay and straight, team players and former solo sports enthusiasts. They are the embodiment of that martial quote from Shakespeare’s Henry V, “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.”

This is a great reward for all of us involved. For me, personally, I thank the mutual benefit of work and my extracurricular life where I can share skills I hone, the knowledge I learn and the relationships I build between the two so simply. To paraphrase Mr. Franklin, that lesson (that I’ve been taught) is indeed the great aim of my post-Penn learning.

Author: Casey Ryan, C’95

I had planned to share with you a story about a trip to Boston for the Penn To You event, Taking a Personal Approach to Cancer: Penn Medicine’s Leading-Edge Discoveries And What it Could Mean for You and Your Family. The discussion would have showcased The Perelman School of Medicine and featured numerous distinguished faculty. This research was featured in the The New York Times this week if you are interested in learning more.  However ,we had to cancel the program due to the impending arrival of the now-called Superstorm Sandy.

As we are in the middle of the holiday season, I’d like to remind you that there are still many affected by the storm’s aftermath and here are some stories which highlight what Penn and Penn alumni have done to disseminate the reality of the destruction and the means to improve the situation.

The immense size of Hurricane Sandy, feature the cold front heading toward the storm (picture courtesy of Wikipedia).

However, I was pleased to see that Penn was covering the storm closely and giving updates and commentary throughout and after the crisis.

In Sandy’s Costly Aftermath from the Knowledge@Wharton site, Howard Kunreuther, co-director of Wharton’s Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, uses one word to describe Sandy, “horrendous.”  He continues, saying that “it’s the worst of the century because of a combination of factors – its incredible reach along the East coast, its incredible damage to New York City and Long Island and the incredible amount of flooding along the New Jersey coast, including Atlantic City.” Talking about the financial impact of the storm along, Kunreuther has heard that cost of the story could reach as high as $50 billion citing that risk of business interruption could be very severe if it takes a long time for some companies to start functioning again and would likely lead to this gigantic price tag.

From Penn’s Center for High Impact Philanthropy’s blog entry, Hurricane Sandy: How Can I Help?, one learns that  the best help would-be philanthropists can provide is cash donations to first responder nonprofits, not product donations.  The simple reason is that cash allows these nonprofits to get what is needed faster and more cost-effectively and to respond flexibly as needs change.

Lastly, from Penn News’ Helping Those Impacted by Hurricane Sandy, the University acknowledges that many of our neighbors in New Jersey and New York continue to struggle in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. To assist,  the University of Pennsylvania’s faculty, staff, and students have undertaken a number of efforts to support the victims of this terrible natural disaster. That means there are several organizations actively supporting those whose lives have been upended by the storm and are accepting donations from those who want to help, including The American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and The Robin Hood Relief Fund.

In this season of giving, I urge you to remember those who could use a little more help this year.

Author: Casey Ryan, C’95

I was on vacation this September, going to Scotland and Wales, with my parents.  The idea of the trip started to form soon after my vacation with them to Ireland last year.  By June, my parents had purchased their flights into the UK via Manchester, and I sent my deposit along for the hotel rooms. Then, I needed to get my tickets to Europe.  I was planning to cash in some United Miles for the trip – all using the least amount of miles and dollar for airport and landing taxes – and I put together a trip from Newark to Manchester via Stockholm and a return trip from Dublin to Philadelphia via Boston.  I needed to buy a flight from Manchester to Dublin separately. In the end, I had one funky itinerary. However, in total, my tickets cost about $130 in fees and 60,000 frequent flyer miles. That’s the beauty of travel – what you lose in succinctness, you gain in adventure.

The ship, Vasa, in the Vasamuseet – Stockholm, Sweden.

Two weeks before my trip, an invitation to an event in Greece triggers an e-mail from Athenian alumna who has relocated to Stockholm.  She wanted to know how to start a club. Since I had a long layover at Aranda, I thought that I should at least meet her while I was in transit  (you never take a vacation from alumni relations; you just don’t answer e-mails as quickly).

Manchester City Hall – Manchester, England.

We had a lovely breakfast meeting, taking in the Swedish cinnamon rolls, kanelbullar, with coffee. We talked about the over 100 alumni in Sweden and over 50 in the greater Stockholm metropolitan area. We shared ideas about how to reach out to them and what might be of interest to the regional Penn alumni. I gave Stephanie a bag of Penn goodies to sample with her follow alumni in the city when she had her first gathering. We also talked about the Olympics, since I had mentioned that I wanted to see the Stadium from the 1912 Games.  She suggested where to go to see some of the very Swedish sites.  I ended up choosing the Vasamuseet, the Stadion and the Stadshus, and Stephanie walked me down to the Vasa Museum for an impromptu tour.

Edinburgh Castle, prepped for the Tattoo which ended a few day prior – Edinburgh, Scotland.

After Sweden, my itinerary took me to Manchester, Edinburgh, Inverness and Glasgow.  I visited the Manchester Art Gallery, the Royal Mile, Loch Ness – looking for Nessie, Urquhart Castle and the Lighthouse.  On my second morning in Glasgow, I join my parents for a Scottish Breakfast – complete with haggis.  I wore a Penn shirt and I didn’t realize it until one of our fellow diners asked if any of us were connected to Penn. For those who don’t know, my brother and I went to Penn undergraduate and my mother took classes and works for the Health System.  So, we all proudly owned up to being a Penn family (my dad chimed in that he was proud to sign the checks for my tuition).

The Glasgow Cenotaph and City Chambers at night – Glasgow, Scotland.

Maureen had just been in Philadelphia about two weeks prior dropping off her daughter for her first year at Penn – living in Harrison College House.  She was excited for her daughter and was looking forward to getting engaged in all that Penn has to offer parents.  In finding out that Maureen lives in Phoenix, I gave her my business card and let her know that there is a Penn and Wharton Club of Arizona located in Phoenix that welcomes the parents of Penn students.  As I said, you never take a vacation from alumni relations.

My dad and I in front of the Norman fortifications within the grounds of Cardiff Castle – Cardiff, Wales.

My trip continued via England into Wales, with stops in Llandudno, Cardiff, then back to Manchester and finally Dublin.  After a busy trip, I landed in Boston and walked into Logan. There, I met up with Melissa Wu, C’99, member of the Penn Alumni Regional Club Advisory Board.  We had found each other through Foursquare and Twitter. We spent just a few moments catching up before I had to run and change terminals for my trip back to Philadelphia.  We bid farewell, promising to reconnect at Homecoming.

Monument of Light (a. k. a. Spire of Dublin) as seen from Mary Street Shopping area – Dublin, Ireland.

Exhausted, I poured myself into my seat on the airplane and relived the fantastic trip in my mind – noting how many amazing Penn people I met along the way.

The dusk sky at Logan Airport – Boston, MA.

Author: Casey Ryan, C’95

My latest travels for Penn took me north to the wonderful city of Toronto for an event with Dean Furda in Admissions.  In conjunction with the Admissions Office’s “Introduction To Penn” program, the Penn and Wharton Club of Toronto had an event for their alumni to meet the Undergraduate Dean of Admissions.  As always, Eric Furda is a fantastic speaker and our alumni love to get the opportunity to hear from and speak with him.  However, the quiet star of the events was the location of the event.

Toronto, from the air.

As Penn moves forward on its own green initiatives, it was a pleasure to host an event at such an environmentally-aware locale – Evergreen Brick Works in the Don Valley, just east of Cabbagetown in Toronto. This dynamic green space started as collection of deteriorating buildings which originally formed the site of the Don Valley Brick Works, one of Canada’s pre-eminent brickyards, from its founding in 1889 to the 1980’s. Throughout its active years, more than 43 million bricks a year were manufactured for use in the construction of homes and buildings across Canada, including many of Toronto’s most prominent buildings like Old City Hall.

Courtesy of Little House on the Urban Prairie

In the 1980s, the site was acquired for public use due to its geography – in the lower Don River Valley – and its heritage – a historic site in the growth of Canada.  However the environmental impact that the Brick Works had on its surroundings was severe.  Brick making takes a heavy toll on the land, air and residents.  Toxins and pollutants had seeped into the soil and muddled the water supply.  The City of Toronto and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority were responsible for the restoration and raised around $6 million to improve on the conditions in the quarry to share it with Torontonian as park and natural area.

CN Tower and Toronto, from the concrete parking lot.

Major work was done to contain the sites contaminations as well as freeing up soil and green area that we’re spared by pollution.  The current parking lot was constructed from concrete in order to contain contaminated subsurface soils and groundwater, which was a by-product of the industrial process of brick making. The nature of the parking lot prevents rainwater from infiltrating and becoming groundwater which would release the contaminants and it removes any human exposure to toxins.  On the other hand, area like the quarry were not affected by the contaminants and this area of the grounds was transformed into the gardens, green spaces and trails that are the hallmark of this venture.

This is has nothing to do with the story, but it’s one of Toronto’s best museums, the Royal Ontario Museum, and I wanted to give it a plug.

Today, the Evergreen Brick Works engages visitors through interactive workshops, community festivals and weekly farmers markets. In 2010, Evergreen Brick Works was named one of the top 10 geotourism destinations in the world by National Geographic.