Category: WP-ORG

It’s fundraising time at WP-ORG. Please consider making a donation: https://www.west-point.org/donate

As I look back at the 26 years of WP-ORG, I can’t help but smile at how far we’ve come and how much we’ve overcome. WP-ORG has grown from a desk, to bedroom, to a DIY server room, to a co-location facility and now, partially, to a cloud. We used to blink out occasionally when the T1 line would go down, or when a storm would take out a nearby power transformer. We had AC units freeze up and once water came pouring in through the ceiling during a torrential Texas rainstorm. We’ve repaired servers with duct tape. We’ve cannibalized one server to keep another online. We’ve moved WP-ORG in pickup trucks. We’ve thought, a time or two, that WP-ORG was finished – that we’d never be able to bring it back online – but then we did. For years now, in the co-location facility, things have been far more stable. It’s fun to look back at the old days and wonder how the hell we did it. Some of you have been here for the whole ride. We’ve been grateful for your company.

WP-ORG is definitely not the West Point Association of Graduates. For starters, we have only two employees and our budget for the next six months is $51,670.00. But we are enthusiastic and scrappy; we love to help and we have an army of volunteers. 

WP-ORG is a 501(c)3. It’s based in Texas, where it was founded in 1996 by a handful of graduates who saw the potential of the internet to bring the Long Gray Line together as never before. They worked tirelessly to build WP-ORG, giving it a mission to foster the connection of graduates online and to support classes, societies and parent clubs across the country with web-based tools. 

In pursuit of this mission, WP-ORG believes in freedom, autonomy and privacy. 

WP-ORG provided services are controlled and managed by their users, allowing classes, societies and parent clubs to determine how to use these tools to best support their organizations. 

WP-ORG does not data-mine anything. WP-ORG does not sell user information. WP-ORG servers are controlled by West Point graduates. 

WP-ORG exists to give graduates and parents a choice in private online communication, event registration and payment, personalized eulogy sites, email accounts for graduates, and free web space for West Point affiliated organizations. WP-ORG is home to the Ring Recovery Project and a graduate living history project in the form of WP-ORG’s Ward Book.

Though the leadership of WP-ORG has changed through the years, the mission has been unwavering and the organization remains accountable. Every six months, in semi-annual fund drives, we ask our users if the services provided are useful, relevant and needed. For 51 fund drives, the answer has been a resounding yes! 

If you value the services WP-ORG provides, please donate so that we may continue to serve the Long Gray Line.

Donate by credit card, PayPal or check: https://www.west-point.org/donate/

Fund Drive 52 Budget: https://www.west-point.org/budget/

Donation report for Fund Drive 52: https://secure.west-point.org/donate/report/

Thank you, always, for your support!

Megan Klein

WP-ORG INC

Fellow graduates and friends of West Point,

It is October again and time for WP-ORG’s semi-annual fund drive. Please donate. Your financial support will keep the wheels turning at WP-ORG.

https://www.west-point.org/donate/

In return, WP-ORG will help keep our graduate community strong, connected and communicating with each other. As I grow older, I am reminded of the importance of the groups that I belong to. Those groups bring meaning to my life and help define who I am. My friends from West Point are some of my favorites 😊 and really the only ones that have consistently been a part of my life over the last 30 years.

Here in Orange Beach, AL, it is also time to celebrate freedom. My community has come together to host a “Freedom Fest” weekend filled with celebration, music and speakers for the sole purpose of celebrating the freedom that we all enjoy here in Orange Beach, in Alabama, and in the United States of America. I am proud to live in a place that truly values the sacrifices made by so many throughout the history of our great country. Over the years, as my children have grown older, I have attended many memorial day gatherings and veteran’s day celebrations at the elementary, middle and high school level. I am always surprised by how touched I am at the outpouring of love for our military and how connected our community is to its veterans. I feel like this happens in pockets all across America, but I am super proud that it happens where I live.

In today’s polarized world, I love that I can depend on my West Point friends and family for rational, thoughtful, respectful dialogue on so many topics. Many of these discussions happen across WP-ORG’s servers.

Please donate today.

Thanks!
Cameron Price (USMA 1996)

Through your generosity, WP-ORG has reached its fundraising goal for FD 50 in only 15 days!

Thanks again to the WP-ORG community for supporting us through your donations of both money and time. We could not do this without you.

This marks 25 straight years of successful fundraising campaigns, and we are as committed now as we were back then to our mission of providing “an online communications infrastructure that enables graduates, parents, and friends of the military academy to maintain and strengthen the associations that bind us together. We will provide this community any requested support, consistent with this purpose, as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
Sincerely,
Warren Hearnes ’89
for WP-ORG Advisors

As you are likely aware, WP-ORG is conducting its 50th fund drive.  Thanks to the generosity of those who use our service, we have successfully concluded 49 fund drives in a very short period of time. Typically, we send approximately 4-6 emails to our users per bi-annual fund drive, asking that you support us.  You always come through, and here we are, 25 years after the beginning.

To donate, please go to:
https://www.west-point.org/donate/

I am privileged to speak to every person who has contacted me through the years, but some contacts emphasize to me the great importance of what we do.

A phone call comes into WP-ORG from a graduate in a class with members who fought in both Korea and Vietnam. I recognize his voice immediately.  I assume our WP-ORG numbers are posted on his computer, though I have never asked. He apologizes to me for calling me “yet again”, and I assure him there is no reason to apologize. His memory is fading, and he forgets that he called me just a few days ago with the same question. He does not recall how to get to specific websites, and often forgets how to get to his email. I don’t mind at all. He is most worried that he does not remember the living and dead count for his class. It’s very important to him that he knows those numbers. So often has he called me for the information, that I asked our CIO write a script that sends me the most current living and dead numbers from every class on a weekly basis, so that those numbers are available to me in an instant when he, or anyone else, wishes to have them. I tell him the numbers, and relief comes over his voice. He now knows how many classmates are waiting to grip hands with him from the shadows. It comforts him. He often sings the Alma Mater to me, which is still available to him in his fading memory. He remembers all of the songs. He sings me “The Corps” –  “…Grip hands with us now though we see not, grip hands with us strengthen our hearts.”  In mid song, he often stops and speaks as his memories flood back, and I can hear his heart strengthen, and his mind becomes temporarily sharp again.  He tells me stories of his roommates, and those that the class lost along the way. He remembers, and then he sings  “….And the last man feels to his marrow the grip of your far off hold.” He stops, and asks me who the last man was that died in his class.  I tell him, and then I listen to vivid memories of that man. His memories are now sharp, and he sings to me more. Finally, we say goodbye, and I know that he will soon forget that we had the conversation, and that he made me smile for about a half hour just listening to his memories come into focus. He forgets, but I don’t. I am now privileged to hold his memories, and my heart strengthens too. His calls come less frequently now, but I am pleased to have been the voice on the end of the phone, and privileged to hear the songs and the stories.

It is through exchanges such as this, that I know WP-ORG is serving a great purpose. It isn’t all about email lists, websites, and email addresses. It’s about connection. The connections for graduates, the connections for parents, and sometimes, a connection to precious memories sparked by calling the lady who answers her work phone.

It is the personal link we have to our graduates and grad families that I personally benefit from every day.  When my WP-ORG office or cell phone rings, I answer.  You will not get a telephone tree with WP-ORG. You get me. It is my pleasure to do all I can to assist. We will stay faithful to our pledge to be here for your online needs, even if those needs are just to have someone answer a phone and give you time to connect to the most powerful memories you hold dear.

Links you may wish to check out:
Our main page: www.west-point.org
WP-ORG Budget: https://www.west-point.org/budget/
Donation Report: https://secure.west-point.org/donate/report/
IRS Letter Confirming WP-ORG 501(c)(3) Status:
http://www.west-point.org/publications/501SUMMARY.PDF

—
Dian Welle
WP-ORG, Inc.
www.west-point.org
208-263-8063(office)