SAVE THE WILD LIFE FUND (SWLF)    

With our 40th Reunion now just a warm memory for all who attended and a lost opportunity to reconnect for those who did not attend, the Save the WILD Life Fund (SWLF) takes on greater importance for the Class of 1971. With our 45th Reunion on the horizon, our SWLF takes on greater importance for the Class of 1971.

Mike Love h71 performing at his 40th Reunion

The Fund has become an enduring memorial to its co-founder, the irrepressible Ed Milne, our original Class impresario. Before he died, Ed talked about perpetuating the fund and fully realizing its goal to provide direct and indirect support for the Princeton University’s Class of '71, while reducing the cost of Class of '71 events for all Classmates.

Since then, SWLF has been a reliable source of support for the Class, benefiting all its Classmates and other Princetonians more generally. Did you know that SWLF has provided nearly two hundred fifty thousand dollars in support to Class and University-wide functions at which the "charitable giving message” was delivered? This includes direct support for Classmates and the spouses of deceased Class members to attend Class events by underwriting all or part of their cost. The sad truth is that as the years go by, this role will grow.

Without SWLF support, for example, fees for our 25th, 35th and 40th Reunions would have been $100 to $250 more per Classmate. In part through these efforts, the Class of ‘71 has now raised over $11 million for Princeton, for the Class of 1971 Foundation, and for other Class-sponsored charitable causes.

SWLF promotes Princeton with three annual Class events now indelibly etched into 1971’s collective Class memory over the past 20 years:

• The pre-P-Rade Class lunch at off-year Reunions
• The Class of 1971 off-year Reunions Reception
• 1971’s Annual Class Meeting and Reception after the home Big 3 football game each Fall, for nearly 20 years at the Class of 1971 Library at The Tiger Inn on Prospect Avenue

As much as anything, these events have helped bind our Class together. Each of these events is free to all Classmates, their families and guests. Hundreds of Classmates and their families have convened at these events over the years, generating many new friendships among our Classmates and rekindling many old ones. Through these events, many of us also first met and can now also call Princetonians from different generations "friends.”

SWLF has already accomplished a great deal:

• Ed’s vision that all off-non-Major Reunions be free for the Class of 1971 became a reality
• Its founders "invented” the Reunions beverage cup, which is still in use at most Reunion sites and has been served on Campus over 3 million times
• Along the way, the Class of ’71 brought back 3 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members to Reunions for concerts, which SWLF insisted be "Open Reunions” events, meaning open to any Reunion registrant regardless of Class affiliation
  
• President Shirley Tilghman called these efforts to promote cross-generational Reunions activities "genius” at our 40th Reunion Class Dinner
  

With your help, SWLF can continue to support Princeton’s Wild Life Class of ’71 in the years to come.

Please make your check payable to: "Princeton University, Class of 1971” and note in the memo line, "Save the Wild Life Fund.” Send it to: Stu Rickerson ’71, Founding Chair SWLF, P. O. Box 510, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067.

CLICK HERE to contribute to the SWLF ... on-line! 

Smokey Robinson h71 and Darlene Love h71 performing at 1971's 25th and 35th Reunions thanks to SWLF sponsors