Dana Kelly Fitzpatrick ’02 had nothing against Hot Bread Night. But it wasn’t a Saint Benedict tradition.
So when she and her fellow members of the Saint Ben’s Senate were planning Homecoming festivities with their Saint John’s counterparts 25 years ago, she rebelled against the idea they should just adopt what was already a Johnnie staple.
Instead, they started a tradition of their own, which is how Bennie Day was born.
“We really did it as a counterprogram to Hot Bread Night,” recalls Fitzpatrick, a member of the CSB alumnae board from 2004-09 and 2013-19 who is now a successful realtor in the Seattle area.
“It was like ‘Fine. You do Hot Bread Night. But we’re going to make something (of our own) up and we’re going to do it better. Then we’re going to build it into our culture.’”
The first event, held in the fall of 1999, was paired with the kickoff of the Benedictine Friends program. It drew around 100 Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict and around 100 students. Bennie t-shirts were printed and became an immediate hit.
“I think we ordered maybe 200, then we had to print another 200, then another,” Fitzpatrick recalls. “People were giving them to their brothers and sisters for Christmas.
“It became this really cool thing. And they’ve done them every year since.”
Meanwhile, Bennie Day itself has continued to grow over the past 25 years, allowing current students and alumnae an opportunity to connect with classmates each Homecoming week and celebrate the uniqueness of the CSB community.
“Bennie Day is a powerful reminder of the lifelong bonds formed at Saint Ben’s,” CSB and SJU President Brian J. Bruess said. “For 25 years, it has been a day of pride, connection and celebration that honors the unique bond we share, whether we’re on campus or spread across the globe.
“Seeing alumnae come together, year after year, is a reminder of the enduring connection Bennies feel to each other and to this place. It’s a joy to witness and celebrate that lasting impact this community has on all of us.”
This year’s event is scheduled for Oct. 3. Official gatherings are already scheduled for St. Joseph, Minneapolis, Rochester, Hutchinson, Chanhassen and Victoria in Minnesota, as well as in London, Brooklyn, Kansas City, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Bozeman, Montana, Scottsdale, Arizona, Des Moines, Iowa and Bend, Oregon.
But plenty of other alums around the nation and world will use the occasion to get together on their own and grab coffee, lunch or a drink. There will also be a Bennie Day Webinar from noon to 1 p.m. featuring CSB and SJU Scholar-in-Residence Carol Bruess, who will discuss the intriguing social science on the power of female connections.
“This one day emphasizing the Saint Ben’s community of students and alumnae all around the world is an important symbolic tradition that captures what it means to be a Bennie,” said Val Jones, CSB’s executive director of alumnae relations. “Every year on Bennie Day, we get photos and stories of alumnae from all over – under the Eiffel Tower, at home alone, in their workplace, with the Bennie Besties or at a Bennie Day gathering wearing their Bennie Day shirts from any one of the past 24 years.
“They just want to be in solidarity with other Bennies because the community matters that much to them – because belonging matters that much to them.”
Fitzpatrick is proud of the way Bennie Day has grown over the years. She said it’s proof of the importance of establishing and maintaining CSB’s own identity and traditions – even in this era of Strong Integration.
“I think the thing that is really clear is how needed it was,” she said. “(If it wasn’t), it wouldn’t have had legs. It would have just been a jokey program and a little quiet protest about not wanting to fold all of our traditions into the Saint John’s identity.
“There’s an identity that is easy to lose in the whisper of compromise. But when there is something that’s a good alternative, and something to be proud of, it seems like that’s something people have some degree of hunger for.”