Prospect gets into the holiday spirit

In my house, we absolutely cannot sit down to Thanksgiving dinner without my dad's "special" grape juice — two parts apple to one part Welch's grape (yes, it must be Welch's and yes, he can tell the difference). A friend of mine from home has another interesting tradition: Thanksgiving dinner at his house consists of seven different soup courses. No turkey, no cranberry sauce, just split pea, borscht and a strange Polish version of chicken noodle.

A more typical Thanksgiving tradition involves volunteering and community service. Every year, the holiday spirit leads thousands of volunteers to soup kitchens and pantries on Thanksgiving to spend an afternoon giving back to their communities, and Princeton students, with their long tradition of being "in the nation's service," are no exception. This feeling extends to Prospect Avenue, where the eating clubs' year-round community service activities heat up for the holiday season. Club members will be participating in traditional service projects such as canned-food drives, as well as more unusual activities, such as holding talks on diversity and hosting holiday parties for Princeton and Trenton-area youth.

After Thanksgiving break, Quadrangle Club will be holding a study break to support Operation Christmas Child. This project, run by Samaritan's Purse, delivers shoeboxes filled with gifts to impoverished children around the world during the holidays. Quad members will be encouraged to donate small gifts, and the club will use part of its community service fund to purchase the supplies needed to wrap and assemble the shoeboxes.

Cottage Club has an ongoing relationship with the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK), where members volunteer twice a month on Friday mornings to help serve food, wrap to-go trays and assist in other TASK projects. Though Cottage members are not coming out on Thanksgiving Day, Ann Orth, the volunteer and patron services director at TASK, always looks forward to working with Cottage.

"They are phenomenal," Orth said. "I know I can rely on them in an emergency [or when] I am short on volunteers."

Some students say working with TASK helps them recognize that they have a responsibility to give back to the community.

"Seeing the contrast between the facilities at Princeton and the manner in which many patrons of TASK live is an eyeopener," Cottage community service chair Colin Fechter '08 said in an email. "It reminds us of a duty to service, and Cottage members take this seriously."

Cottage is planning a special Thanksgiving event to supplement its regular volunteer work at TASK: On Nov. 20, the club will host Tehama Lopez, a visiting fellow at the Carl A. Fields Center, for an after-dinner discussion on diversity. Lopez is visiting Princeton from the University of Chicago, where she is a Ph.D. candidate in the political science department. She is working with the Fields Center to help organize its Conversations on Race and Ethnicity. This will be her first time hosting a discussion at an eating club, and she hopes to prompt students to consider ways they can work together to diffuse racism.

"I hope that when students leave the talk, they continue to think about how individuals and institutions reproduce racism, sexism and heterosexism, and understand that people can reproduce these systems both intentionally and unintentionally," Lopez said. "To be conscious of the ways we perpetuate these systems is our best chance of dismantling them."

Fechter is proud of Cottage's commitment to its community and is looking forward to the discussion with Lopez.

Ivy Club has also been working with TASK; a few weeks ago, members spent a day picking apples at a nearby orchard that they then donated to TASK. In one afternoon, the members collected 300 pounds of apples.

"That was a great bonding opportunity," community service co-chair Nina Cronan '08 said. "We had apple cider and apples and just had a great time."

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Since the weeks surrounding Thanksgiving are often busy for upperclassmen working on their junior papers and senior theses, Ivy's next holiday service projects are planned for December.

"We are working on organizing a toy drive for early in the month," community service co-chair Margaret Kent '08 said. "We are trying to make community service more fun and something people will want to be involved in."

But they'll still mark Thanksgiving with some community spirit: "Thanksgiving dinner at Ivy is always really fun," Cronan said. "The staff cooks their favorite Thanksgiving dishes, and the members get dressed up. It's a great night."

Members of Tiger Inn have chosen to take a more hands-on approach this holiday season. Members Meredith Wall '08 and Britney Delgado '08 organized a Halloween Haunted Mansion on Thursday, Oct. 25. From four to six in the afternoon, kids from the Boys and Girls Club, Trenton Bridge and Riverside Elementary School came to TI to enjoy pumpkin decorating, storybook reading, and a haunted mansion — all run by members of TI.

"The members loved doing it and the kids were all screaming and having a good time," community service chair Charlton Desaussure '08 said. "It was such a success, we are looking at doing another event like that around Christmas time. Except, you know, with Santa Claus instead of mummies."

The clubs also organize special holiday events to help foster a sense of community. Tower president Jon Fernandez '08 agrees that the holidays are an important time for members to spend time with each other.

"Every year our staff plans a Thanksgiving-themed dinner for us before most of us leave campus on Thursday," he said. "We are very fortunate at the club that our staff is willing to go above and beyond for us like that, and it definitely helps promulgate a sense of community." That's the best tradition of all.