Five Alumnae Celebrate the Big 4-0 on A.P. White Campus

LWC alumnae gather Friday morning on the A.P. White Campus to celebrate their 40th birthdays and reminisce about their time at the college. From left: Sarah Barbee Espinosa of Lexington, Ky., Kara Alexander of Florence, Ky., Kelli Stemm Float of Danville, Lara Day Adams of Kuttawa, Ky., and Stacy Norman Read of Glasgow, Ky.

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- Five Lindsey Wilson College alumnae celebrated a milestone Friday at their alma mater. The five alumnae gathered on the Lindsey Wilson A.P. White Campus to celebrate their 40th birthdays. They returned to Lindsey Wilson because they met one another while students at the college.

To prepare for their big day on campus, the five alumnae held a scavenger hunt that included several Lindsey Wilson items.

"This is where our friendship began, so we thought this would be sentimental and nice," said Kelli Stemm Float of Danville, Ky. Float - who won the scavenger hunt - was joined by fellow alumnae: Sarah Barbee Espinosa of Lexington, Ky.; Kara Alexander of Florence, Ky.; Lara Day Adams of Kuttawa, Ky.; and Stacy Norman Read of Glasgow, Ky.

Alexander, Float, Adams and Read were all cheerleaders while at the college, and Espinosa was a student ambassador at the college. Adams made history when she graduated with LWC's first bachelor's degree in liberal studies.

On Friday, the five alumnae met with LWC President William T. Luckey Jr., who recruited several of the women to the college when he ran LWC's admissions program through most of the 1980s.

The alumnae also received a campus tour from Director of Alumni Relations Randy Burns. And it's a good thing they received a tour because their alma mater has added more than two dozen buildings since they were students at the A.P. White Campus.

"We wouldn't have been able to find anything because I think there are only two classroom buildings that I recognize from when we were here," Float said.

Although the five alumnae have led different lives since their Lindsey Wilson student days, the one thing they still agree on was that Associate Professor of Chemistry Robert Shuffett was one of their best professors. "His integrity was what we remember most," Float said. "He was the whole package because he wanted to teach us about life as well as chemistry. He was invested in us, and he wanted to see us succeed."