Late August saw many families visit the Hope campus, but none with as unique a purpose as a four-some from Maryland.
The Kletz family visited campus on Tuesday, Aug. 29, coincidentally the first day of classes, because they'd learned that the college's snack bar shared their last name.
Michael Kletz discovered the name connection when the snack bar's Web site registered as a "hit" when he conducted a search for his last name. He told his wife Cathi, but...
"When he told me he found it on the Internet, I thought it was a joke," she said. "I didn't believe it."
She became convinced when the family phoned the general Hope number and the operator confirmed that they could indeed be transferred to the Kletz.
Michael and Cathi, and daughters Allison and Michelle, then decided to take a Midwest vacation trip, arranging other activities around the certainty of a stop on campus.
They decided to surprise the snack bar staff ("We just showed up," Michael said. "We figured it'd be more fun that way."). They came away from the experience with mementos including menus and bright orange plastic cups emblazoned with the snack bar's--and their own--last name. "This is the funniest thing I've ever seen," Cathi said, examining a cup.
The snack bar's name harkens to the college's Dutch immigrant history, and is taken from the Dutch for to socialize, or to converse with others. Michael Kletz noted that he wasn't certain of his family name's origin, but that the Netherlands and Russia had both been suggested as possibilities.