If you’ve been keeping up with the Westridge Weekly (or video coverage from the Spyglass Instagram), you may know that the campus has been busy these past few days with Alumnae Weekend. What you may not know is that from 9–11 a.m. on Sunday, March 9 (the last day of Alumnae Weekend), the children, nieces, nephews, and husbands of alumnae all gathered on Ranney Court for the third Tiger Cub Club meeting of the year.

Tiger Cub Club (TCC) is a quarterly campus event for alumnae with children—a community-wide “playdate,” as Ms. Fan Wang, Director of Alumnae Engagement, puts it. 

At the club’s spring event this past Sunday, Tiger Cub Club Chair Olivia Moore ’01 organized activities for the families including pinwheel decorating, painting ceramic pots, a nature scavenger hunt, and a bubble station. 

“The idea is to reach the different faces of our community. For an alumna with family members, TCC is the moment that you bring your kids, whether they’re toddlers or school age, on campus and get to know each other,” said Ms. Wang.

For alumnae with male children or children too young to attend Westridge, the Tiger Cub Club events are a way to still include them in the Westridge community. Stephanie Zee ’05, whose two daughters currently attend Chandler, said, “[My kids] like to kind of experience what mom experienced because Westridge is part of our history, and it’s easier to show than it is to tell.” 

Although a big part of the experience is the community bonding between families, the opportunity to be on campus also makes it easier for alumnae to share their favorite memories of the school amongst themselves. Director of Advancement Ms. Sian Leong Adams ’98, who attended the event with her sister—another alumna—and nephew, enjoys that the event always takes place on Ranney Court by the Lower School playground. She pointed to the Ranney Tree and said, “Everybody remembers this tree. If you’ve been here and were in Lower School, [you] know this tree and [love] it. It’s just so special and the centerpiece of the Lower School yard.”

Head of School Ms. Andrea Kassar, who has attended every single event with her husband and two younger children, added, “It’s all of these iconic Westridge spots that we then get to share together over the weekend.” 

The Tiger Cub Club events usually attract 30–40 participants, but with the most recent event aligning with Alumnae Weekend, families that normally live too far away were incentivized to join. Courtney Maher ’05, who attended for the first time with her family, had always wanted to come, but didn’t have the opportunity until this last weekend. “It felt like I was coming back home when I walked on the campus, and it’s just been fun to reconnect with old friends and classmates,” Ms. Maher said. 

Throughout Alumnae Weekend and the Tiger Cub Club event, families reminisced, reunited with familiar faces, and made new friends. Although the club has existed for more than five years, the Alumnae Office credits the leadership of Olivia Moore with making events more regular and organizing the addition of craft activities. “My favorite part of doing the TCC is reconnecting with so many people I haven’t seen in a long time and actually getting to meet their children,” Ms. Moore said. “If we were here for an alumni event, like [a] reunion or the cocktail reception, the children wouldn’t be here. So it’s been fun to…watch [the kids] grow up.” 

Gallery • 9 Photos

Kristin C.

Kids enjoy craft activities and classic Westridge playground games like gaga ball, while parents and Tiger Cub Club organizers conversate.

For Further Reading: 

Wowed by The Women of Westridge: Listening and Learning at Alumnae Weekend