LBCC’s annual Viking Alumni Hall of Fame returned on September 22 to honor five new inductees and bring community building to the forefront after being postponed last year due to the pandemic.
The event took place at the The Grand event center in Long Beach where students, alumni and staff celebrated the new honorees through speeches and career retrospectives; random seating arrangements gave them the opportunity to mingle and dine together, in a way that has been difficult to do since the start of the pandemic.
LBCC Foundation members who organize the event every year found the decision to bring back the event to be a difficult one. Besides safety concerns, the logistics of planning the event also changed drastically.
“Typically, a committee composed of a board of governors, community members, and former hall of fame members help to organize the event. We were unable to have that committee because of COVID,” said Nancy Yoho, the Associate Director of the LBCC Foundation.
Instead, the job fell to six Foundation staff members who decided in 2020 that such a socially focused event was unlikely to do well online. This year, encouraged by a safer post-vaccine environment, they brought the event back by leaving mask requirements and social distancing to the discretion of the guests.
The final decision regarding whether the event went live, however, went to the honorees themselves.
“We asked the honorees what they would prefer, and they all said they wanted an in-person event,” said Yoho.
The Honorees included artistic director of International City Theatre Caryn Desai, award winning photographer Sylvester “Duke” Givens, concert promoter and art presenter John Malveaux, retired Long Beach Police Commander Charles Parks, and Educator and Administrator Cynthia Terry.
Some of the new honorees, like Sylvester Givens and John Malveux spoke about their ongoing projects.
Givens, who is famous for his work with rapper Snoop Dogg and for documenting Long Beach gang culture and community activism through his exhibits like “Power of Choice”, spoke of his project “Sisters of City”, which has been shown at the T building on LBCC’s LAC-campus since 2019.
“It (the exhibit) exemplifies the women that have served this college in an amazing way,” said Givens.
John Malveux, head of MusicUNTOLD, a non-profit arts education organization, announced the debut of a collaborative new orchestra at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in the summer of 2022.
Malveux’s work as a concert promoter has included legendary artists like Marvin Gaye and Etta James.
The accomplishments of the new inductees illustrates that the criteria for being inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame is tough. An honoree must not only have achieved a certain level of personal acclaim or success, they must also have a devotion to community service.
This dual achievement is what sets an honoree apart; a person who can achieve the discipline and time management skills to do both has gone above and beyond to positively impact the community.
Past honoree Doug Otto, an attorney who doubles as a District 4 representative on the Long Beach Unified School District, says the necessary characteristic is not just ambition, but passion for community work.
“You start with a passion for public service, and then you take the education you’ve had, and what you’ve learned about organization, and try to develop a strategy or path to move forward. But it’s a passion for public service that you begin with,” said Otto.
The Viking Alumni Hall of Fame is a highly anticipated event for students, staff, and alumni alike because of the chance to interact with such accomplished role models.
That interaction brings a palpable sense of camaraderie at the event. Total strangers greeted each other with the warm familiarity of friends, acknowledging they were part of the same LBCC community. Current students in attendance, many of whom are likely learning from home right now, had the opportunity to forge new on and off-campus connections.
“These events are very important to continue the wonderful experience that we create for our students on campus, and our faculty on campus and our staff,” said Vivian Malauulu, Trustee Area 2.
LBCC Jazz band member Rebekah Woofer played live at the event. She felt that the event and the rehearsals put together by the music department in order to prepare the band were a pleasant change of pace.
“Opportunities to play have been very limited since Covid. This is one of the first gigs I’ve actually had in a while … something like this was really nice to come out and do again.” Woofer said.
LBCC Foundation Development Manager Matt Guardabascio feels the same way.
“It’s one of the larger events that the college puts on each year, and for me this is what it’s all about …honoring our former students who have gone out into the community and proved they’re the best of the best, representing the college as a whole,” said Guardabascio.
According to Guardabascio, about 180 to 190 alumni have been inducted to the Hall of Fame so far, many of which return for the event to meet new students and alumni and to keep the connection going.
Hopefully, despite prior setbacks, the annual Alumni Hall of Fame will continue to give students and alumni the opportunity to converse and build relationships that strengthen the sense of community and the opportunities that shape lasting legacies at LBCC.