You are here: About Steamboat » News & Events » Caleb Melby '11 Shares His Recap of the Final Dinner

News & Events

Caleb Melby '11 Shares His Recap of the Final Dinner

Posted August 23, 2011

There were, by my count, at least 32 speeches given at Steamboat Foundation’s final dinner held at the Harvard Club Friday, August 12th.

That’s two founder speeches, a speech by Dr. Tom Inck, 14 friend/relative speeches, 14 Scholar speeches and a speech by Program Director Emily Ryan. Her speech had fourteen parts. And I’m not even double-counting speeches that were given by two parents.

I would encourage you to write “speech” as many times as I just have. It starts to look weird.

For anyone unfamiliar with the program or its Scholars, I’m sure it would have been absolutely excruciating – a veritable Oscars for overachievers.

But for those of us who had lived the Steamboat life for the past ten weeks, it was a night to reflect on and celebrate the summer’s significance.

By and large, it was a summer of hard work: early morning commutes, rushed lunches, late returns. And in those precious hours before bedtime?  We shared the day’s triumphs and gaffes. Along the way, there were helpful hands, keen advice, high fives and soft shoulders. Scholars’ stories reflected this adventure.

But it was the parents who stole the show.

Over the summer, the Scholars operated as autonomous professional beings, and we glimpsed ten week ice core samples of each others’ lives. Those weeks were intense, but could not substitute for lifetimes of knowing. Speeches given by parents, siblings and close friends offered hints into our first 20 years of existence.

Some highlights: Social media whiz Ben Tepfer showed early potential as a science museum tour guide. Emma Chory’s parents spent her childhood ordering McDonalds hamburger buns for their picky daughter and paying full burger price. Shannon Berube once attempted to dry her cell phone in the microwave and Jen Schildberg knows how to work a forklift.  Sharon Song played judge as a kid. Jessica Vanachek is a former actress. TJ Dowling came a little late to the whole talking scene and Jamie Bridgewater is a vicious debater. You’ll never guess what Amanda Estevez-Kraus liked most about camping.

The Scholars watched Dr. Inck as their parents spoke, hoping to get a read on what meaning he derived from these seminal tales of early development. 

But what was more overwhelming was the pride that the parents expressed for their Scholars, often through tears and laughter. They all undoubtedly sacrificed to raise their children. Not one thought to mention it, a show of selfless devotion in itself. Some confessed that the evening marked the proudest moment of their lives – a two-decades culmination of character, hard work and personality distilled in a single night of celebration. In this sense, the night was inadvertently just as much about them as the Scholars. No one can steal the show from a proud parent, unless that someone is their kid.  I am not a father, but that’s what most parents hope for, right?

Click here to view photos from the dinner.