Stu­dents, Fac­ulty and Staff Gather for Pres­i­den­t’s Hol­i­day Cel­e­bra­tion

Every year, stu­dents, fac­ulty and staff gather to at­tend the Pres­i­den­t’s Hol­i­day Cel­e­bra­tion. This year, the event oc­curred in Gan­der Din­ing Hall Nov. 27, where the hol­i­day sea­son was cel­e­brated through mu­si­cal per­for­mances, do­na­tions to the Wom­en’s Safe House and a dessert re­cep­tion.

The tree in Gan­der Hall is twice the size of a hu­man in height, and all eyes were glued to it to see its col­or­ful dis­play.

Start­ing off the event was the light­ing of the Meno­rah by Maryville Uni­ver­sity Hil­lel. Each can­dle was lit by a dif­fer­ent stu­dent af­ter a mu­si­cal per­for­mance on the gui­tar.

Fol­low­ing that, Maryville’s Pres­i­dent, Mark Lom­bardi, gave a few words about the hol­i­day sea­son and the uni­ver­sity. Af­ter his speech, three stu­dent groups pre­formed songs to set the mood.

With it be­ing the third week un­til Win­ter Break, the event cer­tainly had stu­dents ex­cited. Maryville stu­dent, Brie How­er­ton said it was her “fa­vorite event of the whole year.” 

The oc­ca­sion put stu­dent, Nick Dwyer, in the spirit of the hol­i­days. The vo­cal work by Maryville’s Gospel Choir, Choral En­sem­ble and No­to­ri­ous, Maryville’s a cap­pella group, played a large role when it came to this. “I par­tic­u­larly en­joyed that. They [No­to­ri­ous] are very au­di­ble, and had good har­mon­ics, as did the other two groups.”

Maryville also spreads aware­ness about an or­ga­ni­za­tion each year at the event. This year, a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from Wom­en’s Safe House was in at­ten­dance. The or­ga­ni­za­tion serves as a do­mes­tic vi­o­lence shel­ter that pro­vides safety and tran­si­tional liv­ing ser­vices to bat­tered women and their de­pen­dent chil­dren in St. Louis. On be­half of Maryville, a bag of gifts was given to the or­ga­ni­za­tion. Do­na­tions were also ac­cepted from those in at­ten­dance.  

Once Pres­i­dent Lom­bardi said his fi­nal words, the tree was lit. Every­one was then free to par­take in the dessert re­cep­tion that had been pre­pared, while hol­i­day mu­sic played on speak­ers for the re­main­der of the event.  

The Pres­i­den­t’s Hol­i­day Cel­e­bra­tion serves as a great way to rec­og­nize and cel­e­brate the hol­i­days cel­e­brated within the Maryville com­mu­nity.

To learn more in­for­ma­tion about how you can help out The Wom­en’s Safe House, click here.