Celebrating Mad Grads Everywhere

Lower right: WAA donated new street signs for campus to mark the association’s 150th anniversary. Above: Robert Bell ’64, JD’67, who submitted the winning flavor combination for Mad Grad Medley ice cream, enjoys the birthday party with Paula Bonner, Bucky Badger, and former Chancellor Biddy Martin. Photos: Andy Manis.

WAA unveils two gifts at campus birthday party.

Hundreds of alumni, faculty, staff, and students gathered in June on the lakefront near the Memorial Union Terrace for WAA’s 150th birthday bash and the first taste of Mad Grad Medley, its commemorative ice cream made specially by the Babcock Hall Dairy.

WAA put out a call to Badgers everywhere to create the special treat. Alumni submitted more than 500 flavor ideas, which were narrowed down to five and and voted on by nearly 3,000 alumni. A blend of vanilla ice cream, Door County cherries, and chocolate was the winning recipe.

“It was fantastic to celebrate our birthday with a new flavor, created by and for Badgers,” says Paula Bonner MS’78, WAA’s president and CEO. “Mad Grad Medley is one of many ways alumni can celebrate WAA’s century and a half of service, no matter where they are.”

Partygoers also enjoyed a Civil War era-themed band to mark WAA’s founding year before the association presented the university with new street signs, a lasting legacy for future generations. The signs are white with black lettering and borders and feature the university crest, replacing the traditional green street signs.

“These distinctive signs showcase the campus as a place to learn and discover, and as the place that alumni and students will forever call home,” says Bonner. Find more on WAA’s anniversary at uwalumni.com/150.

Published in the Fall 2011 issue