The Eastern Illinois University Board of Special Events organized the I Am Thankful For event in the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge Lounge on Nov. 15 to celebrate the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday before the school break.
The board event included a makeshift wall where students could stop by a row of tables and fill out a red, orange, green, brown or yellow paper leaf of what they were thankful for. Participants would then take some sticky tack provided by the organization and put the leaf on the nearby wall for everyone to see as they are walking through the hallway.
“It’s an event for students to come hang out with others, grab a cookie, make friends, and socialize,” Kymoni Dixson, one of the event coordinators said.
Sugar cookies were provided with icing in purple, green or even orange colors that students and staff could scoop out of bowls for a sweet treat as they wrote down what they were thankful for on their leaves for the wall. Chairs and tables were also provided in the Bridge Lounge for students to sit down and talk if they chose to. The event was a peaceful and quiet environment for students to not only sit down and get to know one another, but to have the opportunity to do some classwork which was a relaxed way to express the thankful spirit of Thanksgiving.
Students were encouraged to take a fall themed squishy toy or a decorative pumpkin that were sitting on the tables in the Bridge Lounge while they met with other students and socialized on their way to class.
Dixson hopes the social event will help students express their gratitude for the ability to be on the campus and to have the opportunity to remind themselves why as well as how they arrived at Eastern in the first place in whatever way they did. She thinks it is an excellent way for the student body to see what they are blessed with in their lives while in the wake of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
Even Dixson had something to be thankful for herself, including that she was thankful for her family’s sacrifices that helped her get the opportunity to be at Eastern. She is largely appreciative for their love and support which has helped her in her journey to get the education she is striving for while on campus.
She even stated that to her, the meaning behind being thankful is to look at life and pick out the good and the bad. Instead of focusing on the negative in life, you should focus on the positive. Which in the case of many here at Eastern is an excellent way to see the bright side of the semester since life can get extremely hectic during that time with having to balance schoolwork and having a job.
Michelle Doty can reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].
