September
10, 2004
Second*Saturday
to Introduce New Students to Valley
On
the popular Norwottuck Rail Trail Bike Path in 2003
|
On Saturday,
September 18, more than 400 new students at Mount Holyoke will
explore the Pioneer Valley by participating in Second*Saturday,
an annual day-long program that includes a wide variety of recreational
activities and community-service projects led by upper-class
students, faculty, staff, and alumnae.
“Each project is designed to introduce students to some of the rich resources
and opportunities available in the surrounding towns and neighborhoods, and to
encourage their connection to their new community,” said Catharine Melhorn,
Hammond-Douglass Professor of Music and faculty coordinator for Second*Saturday.
Making quilts for HIV/AIDS newborns in Ashfield; riding the Norwottuck Rail Trail
Bike Path, which connects Northampton and Amherst; exercising the dogs at the
Dakin Animal Shelter in Leverett—the perennial favorite; helping with the
fall harvest at the Food Bank Farm in Hadley; and preparing the noon meal at
Not Bread Alone, a soup kitchen in Amherst, are just a few of the 35 activities
in which new students can participate.
New projects this year include knitting at Northampton Wools; helping vendors
and organizers at the Garlic and Arts Festival in Orange; looking for hawks on
a hike to Goat’s Peak on Mount Tom in Holyoke; and kayaking and canoeing
with All Out Adventures, an organization that provides outdoor opportunities
for individuals with disabilities.
Launched five years ago as part of the College’s new-student orientation,
Second*Saturday, named for the weekend it takes place, gives students a broader
vision of their new home, according to Melhorn. “I always feel sad,” Melhorn
said, “when I encounter students whose experience of the off-campus community
is limited to the Holyoke Mall or Main Street, Northampton, students who have
never been to South Hadley Falls, or hiked a trail in the Notch, or visited the
city of Holyoke.”
For more information on Second*Saturday, please contact student coordinator Nicole
Mazzeo ’05 at nnmazzeo@mtholyoke.edu or
Catharine Melhorn at cmelhorn@mtholyoke.edu or
413-538-2018.
The
counter is
868
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