I serve on a fund-raising committee with a Lutheran pastor and he came to mind yesterday as I was writing checks for our end-of-the-year giving. Yes, it’s a regular calendar event, in our family at least, as the tax year closes out. But Jeff has told me that the tax benefits are not actually the reason most charitable giving spikes at this time of the year. In fact, it’s all the love in the air – ’tis the season, and people really do feel more like giving.
To wish you and yours a Merry Christmas, here to enjoy are St. Norbert stories of giving, gratitude and receiving: two from the past 12 months that repay revisiting …
Sophomore’s Crafty Efforts Outfit an Entire Elementary School Against the Cold
Journal Habit Makes Every Day a Day of Thanksgiving for a Grateful Heart
… and this one sweet story of a wonderful gift (pictured above) that the college received this Christmas from our friends at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, as relayed by President Tom Kunkel just last week:
To our alumni friends:
If you’ve been around campus lately, especially at night, you may have noticed something new and pretty spectacular towering above the corner of Third and Reid streets.
It’s a glittering, 30-foot-tall Christmas tree, a shiny sentinel for the season. The tree is the brainchild of Father Jay Fostner, our vice president for Mission and Student Affairs, and he was able to make it a Christmas reality with a big assist from our friends at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.
“I’ve been speaking for a number of years about a desire to celebrate Christmas with more than just the campus community,” Jay explained. “We do a great job decorating around campus, but we don’t do too much to let the larger De Pere/Green Bay community know we are celebrating. So I asked if there was any way to build a big tree for the corner of Third and Reid.”
Jay’s office contacted NWTC, where a welding class agreed to take up the task of fabricating the conical steel frame. Indeed, the students there adopted the project with genuine yule enthusiasm. “The only thing that got in the way of this project,” said one student, “was our other classes.”
When the apprentice welders were done, a second NWTC class – one in which students learn how to use the trucks that erect things like telephone poles – came out to put it up.
At that point two of our Facilities veterans, Stann Stepien and Steve Srnka, took over, braving early December’s freezing temperatures to hang the 3,000 lights and other decorations that make the tree such a sparkling, nighttime delight.
Our NWTC colleagues have checked it out and they approve. But they felt that it was missing something – a star. So they made one and it’s on its way!
We hope you enjoy this Christmas present from St. Norbert College, and we wish you the happiest of holidays with family and friends:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stnorbertcollege/sets/72157649379112649/.
Tom
A Merry Christmas to all our readers!
