First CC of the AY & Happy 71st Birthday, KP!
Sept 25th, 2014 - by Martha McCann, Michael '13
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If anyone should question the morale building contributions of cookies baked by moms, aunts, sisters and grandmothers, the line of Midshipmen and faculty snaking outside the door of Land Hall last Thursday would put that argument to rest. The happy smiles and sense of relief that 
Cookie Cafe did return was evident on every face. Our wish is that each of you bakers, at some point in your KP journey, join us at Cookie Cafe so that you might live the experience of the joyful faces first-hand. Don't doubt the worth of your contribution. For you newbie parents, you are welcome at any time to Cookie Cafe; stay an hour or stay the entire day, we are grateful for your help.
First off, a huge THANK YOU to parent Leslie Hart for accepting the baton from Muffi Grinnell to coordinate goodies coming from all over the United States weekly from our parent baking volunteers. Taking anything over from Muffi is intimidating, but Leslie has the heart and the verve to pull it off and she has. A note to all our wonderfully sweet moms who baked - your enthusiastic response to Leslie's pleas was fabulous. An unintended consequence (but a good problem to have) was a flood of cookies, many of which came via parents attending Parents Weekend. So, we apologize if your cookies were scheduled for September 27th but somehow are still packed away someplace on campus. While we do have two large freezers, your overwhelming call to action resulted in using storage in other places on campus. We will get to your cookies and we will need them, so don't be disheartened by our initial week. There will be times when states with small representation at the Academy will not be able to fulfill the 250-300 dozen cookies we need weekly and it is a blessing to be able to fill that quota with additional treats that we have saved for just those occasions.
The plebes had no trouble adapting to the Cookie Cafe routine, and as if it were something practiced out of the Plebe Knowledge book, every student was able to peel away at least a layer of stress, eating mountains of cookies washed down with milk. What is always strikingly funny is how the staff and the sometimes very serious looking professors (the Deck teachers?) have that same look. Also arriving were some new faculty who said that they were told by seasoned staff not to miss Cookie Cafe. We wish them inspired teaching. Everyone at Kings Point would readily acknowledge that learning doesn't always happened between just teacher and student, so it was great to see an upperclassman conducting a tutoring class with plebes in a relaxed atmosphere.
Today we celebrated the 71st Birthday of the United States Merchant Marine Academy with a large sheet cake (thank you Dawn Hofler making the pick-up.) On the cake were juxtaposed pictures of two Midshipmen, one from 1943 (Red Wagner) and one from the class of 2015. It was somewhat sobering to realize that the 1943 Mid probably did his Sea Term while serving on a merchant ship and trying to evade German U Boats. He survived the war and his granddaughter, Katie McKenna just graduated with the Class of 2014. Recently, one of our moms came across a merchant marine bracelet on eBay which had inscribed on it the name of a mariner and dated 1943. Thinking that his family might want the bracelet back, she found someone of the exact name on the internet, only with JR. after his name. After leaving a message, Mr. Arthur Nestor Jr. called back to say that his dad had served in WW II and went on to a career as a mariner. In fact, when Mr. Nestor Jr. was a little boy, he remembers seeing a strange man come into the house, only to be told by his mom, "This is your father." The son, now 62, had no knowledge of the bracelet and was thrilled to get it back for his family. One final piece of information about Arthur Nestor, Sr - he was a Kings Pointer! Thank you to all the parents helping today's Mids carry on this legacy of selflessness.
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