Alumni & Donation Information

Are you a member of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans?

Thrivent Financial helps their members contribute even more to their favorite Lutheran organizations.

GivingPlus®

Through GivingPlus®, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and two of its subsidiaries will add $1 to every $2 contributed to enrolled Lutheran organizations by benefits members and those who own Thrivent Mutual Funds and Thivent Life Insurance Company products.

To use GivingPlus® include a completed GivingPlus® form (.pdf) in the envelope with your donation. LCM will fill out the bottom portion and send it in to Thrivent Financial.

To learn more, please visit https://www.thrivent.com/community/outreach/giving/givingplus/members.html

Simply Giving®

Simply Giving® is an automated giving program designed to help you conveniently and consistently contribute to a Lutheran congregation or institution or to pay tuition at a Lutheran school. Through Simply Giving®, your gifts or tuition payments are made through a pre-authorized withdrawal from your bank account or credit card. You determine the frequency of your automatic gift - weekly, semi-monthly or monthly - the option is yours. Your gift or payment is deposited into the recipient's bank account on the same day it is withdrawn from your account - at no cost to you or the recipient.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans offers Simply Giving® to further its mission of serving Lutheran congregations and institutions.

To learn more & enroll, please visit https://www.thrivent.com/community/outreach/giving/simplygiving/index.html

An Alumni Memoir

The following is a story we received from an alum of LCM about his arrival in Iowa City as an immigrant in 1951.  The Lutheran Student Association sponsored him as a refugee from Eastern Europe:

"First Impressions"

by Helmut Gramberg

Here I was, November 1951, on a Rock Island train that was taking me from Chicago to Iowa City , bumping along through the night at a fair speed. Not much to see outside, so I was thinking about the events of the last 48 hours, and, frankly, I was highly apprehensive about the things that were waiting for me at Iowa City where we should stop soon.

Less than two days before, I had arrived in the States on board of a troop transport, a ship by the name of “General Steward”, and I was one of about 1400 refugees, mostly families, that had been unloaded at New York harbor. We had been admitted to the US under a special law that was passed by Congress, allowing approximately 35,000 refugees from Eastern Europe to immigrate without having a specific sponsor. In my case, I had been sponsored by a Lutheran student group, which was a very fortunate development since this group had arranged for a tuition scholarship at the University of Iowa where I had been accepted as an engineering student. I was 20 years old and I came without a family or the backing of a family. So, it was solely up to me of what to make of this opportunity.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. We had arrived at New York late at night after 11 days at sea from Bremerhaven, Germany, and had spent the night at anchor. It was a balmy night and I had been looking at the shore, seeing an endless string of car lights moving along, and wondering what life would be like in the States. I had been talking occasionally with American soldiers stationed in Germany, and I had learned a little about the States in high school, but I didn’t really know much about this country or the rest of the world for that matter. We did not have to go through Ellis Island, having been processed in IRO (International Refugee Organization) camps, and we never saw the Statue of Liberty that I had expected to see at the entrance to New York harbor. Before disembarking the following morning, we were given a ticket to our destination and some cash. In my case, that amounted to train tickets from Jersey City to Chicago with one company and from Chicago to Iowa City with another company. Transfers from New York harbor to the train station in Jersey City and between train stations in Chicago were by limousine or cab for which I received coupons and in addition, I got cash for miscellaneous expenses, meaning food, in the form of one, repeat one, $5 bill. And that plus one suitcase full of clothing was the sum total of my assets to start life in the USA .

When I got to the Jersey City railroad station, I found out that my train would leave in the evening and I had several hours to spend at the station. I was always hungry and so I decided to have lunch at a fast food restaurant in the building. There was a counter, and I pulled myself up on one of the barstools, being careful to place my suitcase directly behind me to make sure nobody would take it. As I held on to the countertop to execute this maneuver, I realized with some dismay that patrons over the years had disposed of their chewing gums by sticking them to the underside of the counter, and nobody had bothered to ever remove these chewed-over gum residues. Then came the task of ordering something that would not exceed my food allowance. I had learned English in high school, but would it be sufficient to order a hamburger? For that matter, nobody in Germany had ever heard of hamburgers at that time, and even though we had read Shakespeare, I don’t think he ever mentioned hamburgers.

Looking at the menu, a hamburger seemed all I could afford on my budget. The waitress asked me what I wanted on the hamburger, and me not knowing how to answer that question, she suggested several items I didn’t understand, except for the word onions, to which I nodded my head. So, that’s what I got, a hamburger with plenty of onion slices on top, something I ate, but suffered from for several hours afterwards. The waitress also asked me what I wanted to drink, and I decided that milk might be appropriate. What she did serve me was an orange juice. How she understood orange juice instead of milk, I will never know, but it didn’t say much for my communication skills, and I was wondering how I would manage my studies at the university. One good thing about this lunch, it didn’t bust my budget, or so I thought, having spent less than a dollar on it.

Then came the long train trip through the night and most of the next day. I was traveling coach, of course, and after a while the chair was not feeling very comfortable. Hard to sleep that way, particularly when thinking about the uncertainties of the future. Throughout the morning I kept thinking about food, and I knew that there was a dining car, but I had looked at the menu, and the prices seemed too much for my limited budget. Finally I broke down, and went for lunch. Carefully studying the prices, I came up with the best I could afford without exceeding my cash assets. To be on the safe side, I opted for water to drink for which there didn’t seem to be any charge. As I was leaving the diner, the waiter stood there with his hand held out, expecting a tip. Tough luck, that’s what I hadn’t calculated. In Germany , you didn’t add a tip. In those days, it was included in the price of the meal.

We got to Chicago and, after a wild taxi ride to the other station, I settled down in my seat on the Rock Island train, realizing that it would be hours before arriving in Iowa City and not having another chance for a meal. As a matter of fact, what really worried me was what I would find after I got to the city. Where would I stay? I had an address to report to, but in the middle of the night, and without money to pay for a taxi fare? I really didn’t know what to expect. Maybe I would have to sleep in the railroad station? I had talked to the conductor and he had indicated to me that Iowa City was an on-demand stop. Normally trains did not stop there, only if needed. At least that’s what I understood, and not knowing exactly what time we would arrive, I had asked the conductor to give me some advance warning before we approached Iowa City . And then I got interrupted in my thoughts and it was the conductor, telling me that we were approaching Iowa City , and that the train would stop in about 15 minutes.

There were only a few passengers in my car, most of them asleep, and I hurried, getting my overcoat on and my suitcase to the door. I guess we were passing part of the city, but even now I could see only a few lights and very little else and then we slowed down and I saw a platform of a sort. The train came to a stop, the conductor opened the door and motioned me to get down the steps; he would help me with the suitcase.

While this was going on, I realized there were several dozen people on the platform starting to sing something like “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow…” And I thought there must be somebody important on this train, maybe the president of the university or a political functionary?

It only came to me gradually, as the train started moving again and nobody else had gotten off. These people were here to greet me. They were members of the student association that had sponsored me, and their pastor (Pastor Proehl) came over to welcome me. Then came all kinds of introductions and eventually the pastor took me and my baggage to his home to stay for a few days until I had a chance to settle down, get registered for my classes and find a part-time job and a place to stay. The best part came when his wife wanted to know if I had eaten anything and would I like to have a little midnight snack? That’s when I realized that I had arrived at a new beginning and things were looking good.