It may have been the only Wellesley club event that ever took place on a New Zealand sheep farm. Thanks to Zoom and Airbnb Experiences, about 75 people from the Wellesley Club of Silicon Valley (and beyond) “wandered” the farm, watching lambs being fed from bottles. While the farm owner plied them with trivia about New Zealand, she demonstrated wool spinning.

“I highly recommend Airbnb Experiences as a resource,” says Denise Lee ’83, the club’s co-VP of programming. “They have so many different types of experiences, from cooking to animal sanctuary visits.”

In this era when meeting in person isn’t possible, Wellesley groups have been using Zoom in all kinds of ways to strengthen their connections. Here’s a sampling:

Hang Out. Last March, the class of ’88 started informal evening Zoom conversations that they thought might last a week or two. In early 2021, they were still going strong—with online yoga classes, gardening tips, tours of their homes, “no shame” classes on financial management, and much more. Mostly, though, the weekly sessions are just a time to hang out and enjoy the support of each other’s company.

Re-Zoom-ion. When reunion ’20 was canceled, the class of ’65 moved its much-loved traditional Saturday morning panel discussion online. They did two 40-minute sessions with classmates in breakout rooms on one of three topics: “What have we learned, lost, or gained during the COVID-19 pandemic?”; “My life today and what I hope for in the next five years”; and “Moving toward social justice.”

Socially Distant Mint. The Washington Wellesley Club and Victoria Lai ’01, owner of Ice Cream Jubilee in Washington, D.C., hosted nearly 300 alumnae for a lesson on how to make Wellesley’s famous Peppermint Stick Pie. At the end, Alice Kunce ’05 noted that her kitchen had candy-cane dust and drips of condensed milk everywhere, and Casey Witman Sankey ’98 commented, “This is the best Zoom I have ever been on in my entire life.”