Dan Shenk – Trail of Death Follow Up

Dear Bethany community — present and past!

As the speaker in chapel last Thursday, March 23 on the 1838 Potawatomi “Trail of Death” and 2015 pilgrimage, I wanted to follow up on a few things in a “letter to the editor.”

Ben Hurst has been kind enough to give me some space here in Sightline,which I just learned has replaced The Reflector, a hard-copy(!) newspaper I edited in the 1967-68 school year.

First, I was pleased to return to my alma mater on the 23rd, but in my talk I inadvertently failed to note that the boy who joined 15 adults on the June 2015 pilgrimage from Indiana to Kansas was none other than Sam Ostergren, now a ninth-grader at Bethany. Sam was nice enough to come up and shake my hand after the presentation.

Maybe you can ask him what HIS experience was like that week almost two years ago. And Sam’s dad, Dave (also on the pilgrimage), was instrumental in successfully urging the Goshen School Board to retire the Redskin mascot in July 2015.

Second, in my opening remarks I said (just for fun) that I made 55 straight foul shots one lunch hour in my senior year in the old gym — where the chapel now is. I also said “55 straight doesn’t hold a candle to your athletic director.” By that I meant Gary Chupp, when he was a student at Bethany in the mid-80’s, hit 62 straight foul shots IN COMPETITION, coming within two shots of breaking Steve Alford’s Indiana high school record at the time.

And when I interviewed Gary four years ago for my book on sports and spirituality, he modestly mentioned that when he was basketball coach at Bethel College in Kansas he was demonstrating to his team one day how to shoot free throws — and proceeded to make 273 straight! Also, from what I hear, his son Tyson, a Bethany fifth-grader, is a chip off the ol’ block.

Third, and more importantly, I hope to see many of you Saturday, April 22 in Rochester for “Indiana Indian Day.” Adam Friesen Miller has more information.

Dan Shenk
Class of ’68