Hey everybody! It has been awhile since I have seen or talked to a lot you and I wanted to take the opportunity to let you all know what is going on with me these days. I am in the second semester of my junior year at HopeCollege in Holland, Michigan, where I am pursuing a double major in Economics and Business Management with a minor in Communications. In addition to my full course load, I also am very active in my fraternity on campus (The Fraternal Society - OKE) and I am a three year member of Hope’s Men’s Varsity Soccer team. I am also active in the Holland community by coaching a local High School JV Lacrosse team and working at both on campus and off campus jobs.
I have a girlfriend named Lauren who I will have been dating for 2 years in April. She is a tall, skinny blonde, but my sisters have forgiven her for that and seem to have given their stamp of approval. This is a picture of us during homecoming last year. She is also a junior at Hope and her family is from Grand Rapids, which is only about 30 minutes from Holland. Her brother and father were both members of the same fraternity that I am in right now at Hope, which has served as a nice connection.
Every five years the men’s soccer team travels to Europe to experience the roots of the game that has been such a large part of my life. This summer the team will be traveling to Ireland and will spend 10 days touring around the sites and experiencing the Irish culture, playing in and watching several friendly soccer matches, as well as doing some community service at an Irish community center. I will try to post a copy of our trip’s proposed itinerary and I have include a few picture of me from this last season. Everyone around here is getting very excited because we will be using the trip as a spring board into our fall training.
This past season I worked to secure a starting spot on the team and ended up being voted as a captain for next year’s 2009 season. This trip is going to be a once in a lifetime experience for me and it is important for the team that I be a part of the trip because of my leadership role for next year. This is not a cheap trip and, although Hope is covering a portion of each student’s/player’s trip, it is up to me to cover $2,000 in order to pay for airfare, lodging and transportation for the 10 days that we are over there. I am trying to get as much out of my college experience as possible, and I wanted to ask for your help to make this dream of mine become a reality.
I realize that many of you visited Ireland and Wales a few years ago and that you had a fantastic trip.If you have any advice/information for me about the area or if you would like to make any financial contributions to help make this trip possible, I would be extremely appreciative. Please feel free to send me an email (john.herbert@hope.edu) or give me a call sometime (574-339-6114) and we can catch up. Hopefully I’ll talk to a lot of you soon.
Thomas Everett Betz -- the newest member of the Herbert/Betz family. "Tucker" shares his big sister Celia's and his mom's birthday -- arriving about 11 o'clock this morning. Aunt Kate, now home from CA, was the first person (after Jenni and Andy) to hold him.
captain for next year’s 2009 season. This trip is going to be a once in a lifetime experience for me and it is important for the team that I be a part of the trip because of my leadership role for next year. This is not a cheap trip and, although Hope is covering a portion of each student’s/player’s trip, it is up to me to cover $2,000 in order to pay for airfare, lodging and transportation for the 10 days that we are over there. I am trying to get as much out of my college experience as possible, and I wanted to ask for your help to make this dream of mine become a reality.
