Contingency Plans Made For MacMurray Alumni Weekend in Wake of McClelland Fire

By Benjamin Cox on June 11, 2024 at 2:41pm

The MacMurray College Alumni weekend scheduled for June 21st-23rd is still going on, with a few logistical changes.

The Alumni Association announced a few logistical changes after the devastating fire at the McClelland Dining Hall overnight Sunday.

The main changes for the weekend include the Alumni Breakfast scheduled for Saturday morning. Since the dining hall is down for the indefinite future, there will be a continental breakfast offered in the traditional alumni weekend tent between Annie Merner Chapel and McClelland Dining Hall that Saturday morning.

The MacMurray Scholarship Reception is in the process of making contingency plans. The relocation of the reception is still being worked out, and will be announced soon.

The Alumni Dinner and Awards Banquet has been relocated to Hamilton’s North East from 5-9PM on Saturday. The venue will be shared with another party in a larger room that was already booked, but the dinner will have its own space. There will likely be no music entertainment due to limited space. Reservations will be limited.

Registration for the event remains open at macalumfoundation.org.

In the meantime, owners of Cured Catering, Melissa and Brian Reilly, have had a GoFundMe campaign set up for the loss of their business that was housed at the historic building. Cured had been using the Jacksonville site as the main location of their operating business due to its large space. They lost most of their catering equipment and supplies in the fire. They are currently working with several partners in the local catering industry to continue to meet the demands of their already-booked summer season. Brian is a member of the Class of 1999 at MacMurray and was happy to return to campus back in 2022. It is reported that they have insurance that will help cover the costs of equipment, but those claims will be in the long term. The GoFundMe to help them in the short term for their business to continue in the region can be found at this link.