As the end of the semester approaches, the student involvement office is preparing a Celebration of Light to kick off the annual Winter Celebration.
Students, faculty, family members and alumni can all make their own luminaries that will line Appian Way on Nov. 30, with students participating for free, according to Student Center Programs Coordinator Brandon Carta.
Student involvement staff has tabled in the student center offering the chance to make a luminary. Each luminary is constructed of a paper bag containing sand and a glowstick.
Carta said he reached out to the community living office, the athletics department and several first-year seminar classes to see if there was interest in getting existing communities to participate in making luminaries.
The Celebration of Light and Winter Celebration will act as “bookends of the winter break,” Director of Student Involvement Jess Gagne Cloutier said. The events were joined in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, but now the plan is to keep the current schedule in the following years.
Student involvement staff moved the Winter Celebration to the beginning of the spring semester during the pandemic, Gagne Cloutier said. The change in timing led to the event transforming into a second involvement fair, similar to the one held towards the beginning of the fall semester.
The Celebration of Light now serves as the sendoff for students and faculty before finals week and the end of the semester.
“We want to celebrate all the things that have brought people joy through the last year, especially in a time where things have been tough,” Carta said. He said one of the purposes was to maintain joy at the start of the darkest time of the year.
“I think joy is a hard feeling to have … I think what will make this event successful is everyone will be able to realize that even though that people are stressed and bad things might be happening, everyone has just a little bit of joy or a little bit of light that they can take out of things,” Carta said.
Gagne Cloutier and Carta said their goal for the celebration was to reach 1,000 luminaries. They both said the goal was lofty, but Gagne Cloutier expressed hope they could reach the number in the future if the event is cemented as a tradition.
Currently, about 300 luminaries are prepared. Gagne Cloutier estimated around 97 percent of the existing luminaries are from students. She said that number may decrease to 95 percent as outreach to family members and alumni continues.
“The goal was really to find ways to connect with those folks. Bring part of their messaging to campus, too, like some of the family ones are all like, “Love, Mom and Dad,” like, “We’re so proud of you,” like, “You’re doing a great job, you bring so much light to our lives.” They’re really sweet messages from families and so the hope is to get folks in the routine of knowing that that’s an opportunity.”
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to fill Appian Way with like a thousand of them. You know, that’s the dream,” Carta said.
Charlotte King can be contacted at
cking@kscequinox.com
