August 10, 2021

All Kemper Military School and College Alumni

RE:  Missouri Military Academy Homecoming September 17-19, 2021

Calling all Yellow Jackets,

It gives me great pleasure to present an official invitation to the Missouri Military Academy Homecoming next month at the school. Last Friday, Jason Falbo (MMA Alumni Association President) came to visit our museum and extended an invitation to all Kemper Military School and College Alumni. The festivities kick off on Friday, September 17th with open registration from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.  Please see a few of the exciting events below:

• Friday: At 9:00 a.m., there will be a fund-raising golf tournament, that is always a great time, followed by a nice dinner on campus that evening. We also have a virtual golf tournament that is available for those that will not be able to make it out. Online registration for the golf tournament can be found here.
• Saturday:  All regularly scheduled events prior to the pandemic.
• Sunday:  Farewell breakfast in the mess hall, followed by a Vespers service in the Cadet Chapple. There is also an option to attend the Cardinals vs. Padres game in St. Louis with a bus from campus to the stadium and back.

You may view the full weekends schedule here.

For all interested parties, please reach out to me or Laura and we hope to see some “Old Boys” in the mix!

Best,

James

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Dear Alumni,

It gives me great pleasure to report the third KMS Museum work weekend has concluded. Your Kemper Museum is coming along in a BIG WAY! The weekend started out with verifying the installation of three new windows, all wood floors, a new AC unit and duct work. All repairs from the fire are complete and we are very glad to have that in our rear view mirror. Next, we met with our contractor to build the bar, reinforce the railing and bring it up to code. All work flow should be complete for our grand opening in October for the Reunion!

The weekend was spent bringing over larger archives, pictures, administrative documents and old paperwork from storage. Furniture was cleaned up as well as book cases sanded and stained. The third floor is now our Museum triage, where all items are arranged chronologically, and then by category. There is a ton of stuff to go through and this will take quite a while to get things organized into a presentation format. To this end, there is a lot of storage and documentation items needed so we created an KMS Museum Items wish list!

Check it out:

https://www.amazon.com/wedding/kms-museum-james-hallam-president--december-2025/registry/1IPYEX1XTTPL5

Bringing this Museum to life cannot be done without the hard work of your board of directors as well as our loyal volunteers. It is important that all volunteers are recognized for all their hard work:

Laura and Jody Gramlich, Johnny Kartsonis, Bisham and Dash Perti, Brandy Waller, Mike Stepto and James Hallam

The KMS Alumni Association is in full swing and we need everyone’s help with this project. Please mark your calendar for our next work weekend August 6-8, 2021. You may also help by joining the 1844 Society at the following link: https://www.kmsmuseum.org/donate.

I appreciate all the efforts and there has never been a better time to get involved with Kemper than right now!

Sincerely,

James Hallam

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Dear Alumni,

I am pleased to report our second KMS Museum work weekend was a huge success. Our small crew was able to create a plan for the flow of the museum and begin bringing over archives and placing them on the floor and walls. We then taped off the floors to visualize the layout of the display cabinets, the lounge area and the new bar that is being built for the museum. Plans were also made for the moving of class pictures back into the museum for placement and hanging.

The next steps are to finish the wood floors on the third floor, repair frames and class pictures, order display cases, pipe and drape the third floor inventory section, get estimates for the 2ndfloor windows to be replaced, layout the kitchen, build the new custom bar, create front wooden sign, install A/V TV above the bar and on balcony rails, new A/C duct work, repair A/C unit from fire and prep the 2nd floor for a re-creation of a cadet room. Finally, we will begin to bring the items of use from storage back to the museum for inventory and clean up for presentation.

There is lots of work left to be done and we are thrilled to have all of this in motion. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to Laura and Jody Gramlich, Johnny Kartsonis, Bisham and Dash Perti, and Mike Stepto who helped me and the KMS Association all weekend.

The KMS Alumni Association is in full gear and we need everyone’s help with this project. Please mark your calendar for our next work weekend on July 8-11, 2021. You may also help by joining the 1844 Society at the following link: https://www.kmsmuseum.org/donate.

I appreciate all the efforts and there has never been a better time to get involved with Kemper than right now!

Sincerely,

James

Dear Alumni,

I am so happy to inform you that our 2nd Kemper Military School and College Alumni Association Museum work weekend is officially on the books and scheduled for May 21-23 with a 1 p.m. start time on Friday. Since our last work weekend there was a fire two doors down and all of the Kemper artifacts had to be removed and returned to the storage area. Luckily, the building sustained minimal damage such as smoke and water damage. The KMS Association is currently working with our insurance company to replace the furnace in the basement as it was ruined due to flooding from the Fire Department’s brave efforts to put out the fire. With all of this in mind, we have lots of work to be done and need help from all of you!

We are in need of people who know how to lay floor, paint, and repair the brick and cement. The third story needs the floor finished and we have all the supplies at the Museum ready to go. The walls will need repainting due to the smoke clean-up and the basement will need to be reinforced with brick or plywood as the existing dirt caved in slightly from water damage. Our main goal is to get the building back to operating standards before we bring any of our history back in as we continue to protect our legacy.

Please be watching our social groups online for updates on what skilled labor and supplies we need! Thank you in advance for all that you do for the KMS Association and if you have not already, don't forget to join the 1844 Society!

https://www.kmsmuseum.org/donors

Hope to see you all in a few weeks. Come join the fun!

Go Team!

James

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