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Giving Back During the Holiday SeasonBy Emily Yeterian, Courtesy of Kent News |
The holiday season always seems to bring out even greater generosity from the Kent community than usual. Every year, there are new and old ways to give back to the community during this time of cheer.
A popular community service group on campus, Remember Every Action Can Help (REACH), has been participating in the Kent and New Milford Santa Fund, which sponsors children in those areas, since 2005. The group annually puts up an angel tree in the dining hall and asks the community to purchase gifts for children who would not otherwise be getting anything for the holidays. The gifts go to 36 children directly in Kent and some others outside of Kent, in New Milford. This year, according to Mrs. Sokolnicki, Director of Community Service at Kent, approximately 50 people offered to buy individual presents for kids. In addition, many departments and individuals on campus signed up to sponsor a child’s complete wish list. Every child is given a package with about four gifts including outfits and other gift like items ranging from jewelry, toys, and any other desires on their Christmas list.
Another holiday community service tradition at Kent is the Christmas Bazaar. Last year, the bazaar turned out to be a great success, making significant profits for each group’s cause. The second annual Christmas Bazaar was recently held, and at this popular event, many different community service groups in Kent set up shop and sold their goods. “We put up the tables, put on the music, and put our items out for the public to buy” says Devin Brodie ’11. This year, nine groups sold items in a wide range of categories. REACH sold bath soaps and salts, while Habitat for Humanity vended peppermint bark and the Environmental club pedaled aluminum Kent water bottles. Another amazing gift opportunity at the fair was the hand woven baskets from Africa which were sold in all different sizes and in a rainbow of colors. In keeping with the theme of their club, Big Sister-Little Sister sold fun sparkly hair clips and beautiful jars filled with delicious holiday candies. The My Solider Club even had a special table to make a card for a soldier serving overseas. There was music, food, and great shopping for everyone. “I always get a lot of my Christmas shopping done and have a great time at the bazaar” Monica Mosczcyc ’11 comments. The best part? It was a great opportunity for each service club to make some holiday dough for their respective causes. The bazaar has been such a success in the past two years that there is no doubt it will continue on as a new Kent tradition.
Finally, every year at the Lessons & Carols service, the spirit of giving is alive and well and there is quite a lot of money donated during chapel. This year, as in previous years, the Mission Committee decided that the money would go to purchasing several animals from the Heifer International Foundation, which provides animals for people in impoverished countries.
Kent has always done a great job of helping out the community through its large amount of service groups and committed students. This effort is always amplified during the holiday season and this year was no exception!
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Holiday Traditions à la KentBy Ellie Hong, Courtesy of Kent News |
With the annual bustling atmosphere created by the five-hundred plus students in anticipation of going home for the holidays, there is little time to stop and share holiday spirit with friends here on campus. Everybody is swamped with last-minute quizzes, tests, essays, or other god-awful measures of knowledge, in addition to athletic events, rehearsing for the winter music concert, or, well, getting some good ol' hibernation in between. One long-standing event at Kent School which allows all the members of the student body, faculty, and staff to come together in the spirit of the holidays is the Lessons & Carols service held in Saint Joseph's Chapel.
With the ambience set by evergreens and classic red and white poinsettias, our chapel looks pretty darn festive around this time of the year. These poinsettias are purchased by the Kent School community in the weeks prior to the service via Mrs. Judy Alderman, Kent’s gift processing specialist. Each poinsettia plant in the chapel serves to honor the memory of a dear friend or family member of an individual in our community. The fact that not a single Holiday season has passed in the last several years without the presence of poinsettias in the chapel proves that the giving spirit of the Holidays does indeed exist. A delightful new addition to the chapel during the Holidays this year is the menorah, in representation of Kent’s Jewish community. Emily Cohn’11 led the celebratory and symbolic lighting of the first candle during the first chapel service following Thanksgiving break.
The name of the service gives away what occurs during the night of Lessons & Carols. The Padres give the congregation several lessons from the Scripture, and there are carols sung in between the lessons. The carols, ranging from tradition to formal popular pieces, allow the congregation to get hands-on with the service. “It always gets people into the Christmas spirit with the singing and carols”, Mr. Emerich, the Kent School Music Department chair, accurately announced only nights before the event. Mrs. Hobbs, the director of the Kent School Orchestra, shared her opinion that “Lessons & Carols is traditionally the loveliest service of the year, and I think that this year’s service will live up to its tradition.” This belief is supported by a predominant number of students, as well. As for myself, I’m looking forward to the opportunity of belting out the words of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” with some of my fellow tone-deaf peers; our mistakes discretely and thankfully covered-up by the talent of the choir, of course.
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Kent's International Holiday TraditionsBy Natalie Carpenter, Courtesy of Kent News |
While Winter Break for most Kent Students consists of the celebrations of Hanukah, Christmas or New Year’s Eve, we are fortunate to be surrounded by a wide array of unique international holiday traditions. Students from diverse religions and nationalities contribute to the Kent School holiday experience.
Nampeung Tiwapong ’12, a junior from Bangkok, Thailand, celebrates the winter holiday of Loi Krathong. The Thai festival is celebrated during the 12th month in the Thai calendar, which usually places it in late November or early December. Participants in the festival float small decorative rafts called krathongs down rivers or other bodies of water, depending on the region of Thailand. Loi Krathong concludes with the floating of sky lanterns, which are usually made of thin paper and candles, and a fireworks show. “The krathongs are the main part of the holiday,” says Nampeung, but the fireworks and sky lanterns add to the beautiful celebration.
In Mexico, junior Emilio Rosas ’12 and the Catholic majority of the population celebrate Christmastime with Posadas. Posadas is a Spanish-Mexican ritual that convey the trials Mary and Joseph faced when searching for the place where the baby Jesus would ultimately be born. The Posadas are organized by neighborhood, and are usually held eight times from 18th to the 24th of December. These eight Posadas are celebrated by “a shared meal with liquored ponche and walking from house to house, representing pilgrims,” describes Emilio. On Christmas Eve, families often share a special meal and then open presents from Santa Claus on Christmas Day, in accordance with the American Christmas tradition.
Katie Sondag ’11, a senior, has celebrated Christmas in Italy with her family. Italian Christmas is not complete without the Christmas Festival in Santa Croce Square in Florence. Katie compares the Santa Croce Festival to Americans visiting the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, saying that “they are both the place everyone visits as a festive holiday tradition.” The festival consists of an annual Christmas market, selling ornaments and other specialty decorations and gifts for the holidays. New Year’s Eve is celebrated similarly in Italy as it is in America, except for the traditional Italian belief that the amount of lentils eaten on New Year’s Eve represents the amount of wealth to be obtained in the New Year.
New Year’s Eve is an important part of the holiday season in Scotland. Cameron Buchan ’11, a Scottish postgraduate, traditionally celebrates New Year’s Eve with a ceilidh, which is a party with traditional dancing. Not surprisingly, many people represent their heritage by adding kilts to the holiday tradition. As in most American celebrations, the Scottish New Year’s Eve gatherings focus on the countdown to midnight and the coming new year.
While American traditions are an important part of the holidays, there is always room for more celebration. This holiday season, take advantage of Kent’s international student population and learn from the cultural differences that make each celebration unique.
