UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 12, Page 7
November 18, 1993
Students pay tribute to best 'Blue Hen Parents'

     Parents got a glimpse of campus life at Parents Day, Nov. 6, and some
parents received a little "extra credit" from their students in the Best of
the Blue Hen Parents essay contest.
     Six students were awarded prizes and read excerpts from essays
saluting their parents at the Saturday morning President's reception in the
Bob Carpenter Center. First and second prizes were ticket vouchers on
Continental Airlines for roundtrip travel anywhere in the United States.
Third place was a set of tickets to a U.D. athletic event, and the fourth-,
fifth- and sixth-place winners received gift certificates from the
University Bookstore.

                              First place
     Junior Leigh Drachman wrote that her parents, Franklin and Linda
Drachman of Cherry Hill, N.J., "were ecstatic" when she was accepted at
Delaware, but finances were a problem. Her father "turned to his prized
possessions....While he realized that he could not save his baseball and
hockey cards forever, it was still a shock to sell Mickey Mantle and Bobby
Orr to a card collector. To Dad, seeing me (his only daughter) go to school
was much more important than his personal accumulations."

                              Second place
     Angela Burkholder, a junior, saluted her parents, Alvin and Charlotte
Burkholder of Ephrata, Pa.  "There is a time when each Blue Hen must fly
with its own wings," Burkholder began her essay, and during her years at
the University, she not only spread her wings to Delaware but over two
other continents-to Spain and Puerto Rico, with a stopover in Venezuela-to
study Spanish. Said Burkholder in her conclusion, "I know my parents love
me....They show it in their support of my decisions. They show it by
perhaps not saying something that would discourage me. They show it by
saying, 'Can we come visit you in your next travels?'"

                              Third place
     Eliza Anne Sorte, a junior, called her parents, Anne and James Sorte
of Wolf Point, Mont., "the most unlikely eggs to have been hatched by
Fightin' Blue Hens in years." She pointed out that it's difficult to be a
Hens fan at Fort Peck Indian Reservation in eastern Montana where "their
enthusiasm can only be sustained with small written statistics. It isn't
possible to watch a live game or even hear a live broadcast." As Sorte
points out, "after flying from Wolf Point, Mont. to Philadelphia and
driving finally to their destination of Newark, my parents deserve not only
the title of Best Blue Hens Fans, but also the title of Best Parents."

                              Fourth place
     Jennifer Croneberger, a sophomore, told how her parents, the Rev. John
and Maryilyn Croneberger from Tenafly, N.J., had always taught her that
"honesty was the key to happiness." She wrote, "Last summer, I found the
trust to open myself up, to become vulnerable....It was May 28, 1993, when
I told my parents I was gay. I remember that date well because it was then
I found two new best friends. It was then I knew that all of the trust and
truth, honesty and happiness are, indeed, what my parents have built my
family upon."

                              Fifth place
     Jelica Arsic made a long journey to Parents Day, according to her son,
sophomore Peca Arsic. A physician in her native Yugoslavia, his mother left
her practice to come to Morgantown, W. Va., to be near her son. As he
wrote, "My mother made one of the greatest sacrifices for me so I could
play basketball at the University of Delaware," describing how because of
the political situation in Yugoslavia, he left to come to the United
States. When his mother made the "decision of her life and moved to the
United States also, she left everything she had done at home and started
her life all over." He concluded, "As you can see, my mother is the
greatest of the Blue Hen Parents because of all the sacrifices she has
made. Her presence gives me some security and belief that I can reach all
of my goals and fulfill my dreams."

                              Sixth place
     Sophomore Carrie Ann Vestal of Germantown, Md., recalled arriving at
the University her freshman year with her parents John and Phyllis. She
described her feelings ("scared") as she went through the traumas of moving
in. That night her parents left a letter for her. It was "the kind of
letter every child should receive from her parents. It was comfort in its
purest form; no lectures or ultimatums attached."  She recalled how eager
she had been to leave home and wrote, "While I thought my parents would
hold on tightly to their only little girl, it was I who was holding on to
them. And they had the grace to let me go. But I will never leave."
                                                  -Sue Swyers Moncure