"It started off innocently enough. It began with an email response to our monthly alumni newsletter that had just gone out the last Thursday in January 2021. I had heard rumblings of this mythical story over the years, told by different people at reunion weekends. Numerous alumni claimed to have been part of the story, which is not an unusual occurrence as alumni director.
The email stated, "Karen, did I ever tell you about the bed race that appeared in Life magazine? Cheers, Carp."
I could not resist. I reached out to Carp. Through a series of recollections from alumni from the Classes of 1959, 1960, and 1961--all received through email chains--we told the story of the greatest bed racing story ever told.
Once published on our university Daily News site, featured in our alumni email newsletter, and on social, it generated a great sense of community and sparked memories of all of our times at McMaster when we were facing an extended period of stay-at-home orders, business closures, hospitals overwhelmed, vaccines in the horizon, and the depths of a cold Canadian January
The story had 533 click-throughs in our email newsletter, 15,582 Twitter and Facebook impressions, and a read time of 5:18 on our Daily News site, which indicates that people read the entire tale or rather, story."
From the Judges
Rip-roaring, unique, and silly to the point of absurdity, a tale uniquely suited to a particular institution's lore that tells us as much about its geography and climate as how its students (and alumni) forged connections that lasted a lifetime.
