Date: Dec 05, 2006

HOFSTRA STUDENTS UNFURL THANKSGIVING SCROLL

Hundreds thank University personnel for day-to-day help, raise money for local charities

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY - Hofstra students will unfurl a 40-foot scroll in the Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center, north campus, tomorrow, Wed., Dec. 6, 2006, at 11:15 a.m., as part of the Thanks & Giving Project in which they thanked those in the University community for their contributions to campus life. The students also raised $500 for local charities.

See video and photos of the event: click here!

"When we envisioned the project I thought it would be in the spirit of Thanksgiving, in the spirit of the holidays, to give people the opportunity to thank many of the people that we encounter day to day on campus who do things that are helpful to us in small ways," said Rabbi Meir Mitelman, the University's Jewish chaplain and executive director of Hofstra Hillel, the project's lead sponsor. "The idea was to encourage students to have an 'attitude of gratitude' and heighten people's awareness of saying thanks and how moving and touching it is for someone at the other end, especially for people who may rarely get that kind of public acknowledgement."

Starting a few weeks before Thanksgiving, students were asked to fill out thank you cards to someone on campus who had touched their lives, including food service workers, custodial and maintenance staff, public safety officers, administrators or professors. More than 600 cards will be mailed out this week. The students were also asked to donate $1 to benefit the Interfaith Nutrition Network and Island Harvest, and raised more than $500.

The scroll to be unfurled tomorrow is constructed of individual panels created by student clubs, sororities and fraternities and signed by hundreds of students

Cosponsors of the Thanks & Giving Project include the Interfaith Center, Dean of Students, Residential Life Office, The Chronicle, InterFraternity/Sorority Council, Muslim Students Association, Newman Club, Student Government Association, and Student Activities Office.

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students find their edge to succeed in more than 140 undergraduate and 150 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education and allied human services, and honors studies, as well as a School of Law. With a student-faculty ratio of 14-to-1, our professors teach small classes averaging 25 students that emphasize interaction, critical thinking and analysis.

Related Link: Thanksgiving Scroll Video and Photos