A living alumni directory for Grand Haven

The day, in one line

One thing BOOMERANG taught me, standing at my own table: I built my booth around a QR code, certain the students would scan it and take the journey on their own. They didn't. Not until a person asked them to. A code can open a door, but only a person invites you through it — and once they were asked, they took the package home, and curiosity did the rest. That lesson is this whole page.

BOOMERANG, Grand Haven High School Field House, Tuesday, October 13: about twenty students took a first step toward real work, one handed me a résumé, and fifty took the story home. Students from four districts — Grand Haven, Spring Lake, Allendale, and Careerline Tech Center — walked that floor.

And standing right beside my booth all day: the GHHS Alumni Association's own sign. JOIN THE GROUP — 1,000+ members.

What you told me

The assistant superintendent is building a strategy for the alumni who can give at the highest levels — naming-level gifts, recognition tiers, and a donor database that treats that circle with respect.

The thought: a living directory, not just a database

A database holds names. A directory honors people. Imagine that circle with portfolio pages of their own — their story, their business, their class year — kept current, the way a passport works. Recognition that lives all year, not just on a gala night.

The pattern, already working — as I mentioned at the table

At BOOMERANG I received nothing back as an exhibitor — no attendee list, no way to follow up with a single student. So I built the fix and shared it with the Chamber: one entrance QR opens a searchable directory of every exhibitor, each with their own door — visit, book, apply, contact — plus a digital passport that rewards visiting five booths.

That is the same pattern, at fair scale. The alumni directory is that pattern, at district scale.

Ground that already exists

• The GHHS Alumni Association group: 1,000+ members, growing on Facebook
• Its home page: https://rezconnect.store/ghhsalumnigroup
• Save the date already set: the all-class gathering, September 24, 2027
• For alumni who own businesses, a community rung already exists — Walk the Beat sponsorships — so their giving and their business can live in one place.

Walking it through, together

This idea doesn't belong to me alone, and I don't want to carry it that way. I would be honored to walk it through with the Grand Haven Schools Foundation and the support system that could be onboarded around it for the school system — the Foundation, the Alumni Association, the classrooms that build, and the local sponsors who stand behind them. In a school deployment, the margins stay open: the share that would ordinarily remain with my platform could flow to the Foundation instead, to fund the very programs this directory serves. I look forward to the possibility of further discussions.

The hub behind it

What promotes all of this is Walk the Beat — and behind Walk the Beat, a platform built for exactly this work. rezconnect.store helps local businesses promote themselves and step into digital tools and Advanced Intelligence, building their own platform and their own e-portfolio — a briefcase you carry with you for life, and build your business around. The tools energize the business; the business funds the mission; the mission develops the students.

And the hub doesn't stand still. Joining it means joining ongoing innovation — the tools keep developing, the path keeps opening. It isn't stale, and it doesn't stay the same: it is the path forward, and the people in it are part of where it goes next.

This is the hub. This is the spot you want to be in.

The classroom engine behind it

The School Ecosystem — eighth-grade Builders, seniors in the field, open margins: https://tinyurl.com/the-school-ecosystem

Education Pipeline Portfolio →