SpringfieldNewsSun.com

Springfield, Ohio — More than 800 Wittenberg University alumni attended recent events hosted by WittNation cross-country tour, according to university officials' estimates.

Alumni traffic at the university's Web site increased fivefold and has remained steady more than two weeks after the crew returned.

"We couldn't plan everything that would happen, and there were some tense moments for all of us," Linda Beals, director of alumni relations, said of the 8,000 mile, coast-to-coast trip staff members took to 18 cities from July 11 to Aug. 2.

The crew of Ashley Petersen, assistant director of alumni relations; Brian DeSantis, assistant director of the Wittenberg Fund and Ross Ballinger, new media assistant for interactive communication; collected more than 160 video interviews of alumni during the trip. The interviews are the beginning of video archives the university plans to compile regularly during trips, reunions and Alumni Week.

The crew said the number of contacts they made with alumni met their expectations, but the life-changing experiences of meeting those people exceeded them.

But they'd like to forget the panic they felt when they prepared to load the van after a night in Los Angeles.

"When we turned the corner, our jaws dropped," Petersen said. "The WittNation van was gone. We thought the van was stolen."

Turns out they parked too long on the Sunset Strip and had to spend some time proving ownership to a tow company employee.

When asked if they would do it again, Petersen answered "definitely."

And they'll get the chance. "There will be a WittNation '09," Beals said.