400 NEW STUDENTS AT
MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE TO GET
INTRODUCTION TO PIONEER VALLEY ON SEPT. 18

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – 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, so named because it occurs on the second Saturday of the fall term, 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.”