The Crusaders Quartet remembered how to get the most out of singing around one microphone during a “reliving radio” segment at a celebration of 85 years of Young Peoples Christian Association at EMU (l. to r.): Aaron King, Eugene Souder, Paul Swarr, Roy Kreider. Photo by Matt Styer

The gathering – part of homecoming and family weekend – was emceed by John R. Martin, YPCA president in 1953 and ’54. Among many other facts, he noted that the “Y,” as it is affectionately known, is the longest running student-led group in the school’s history.

“Perhaps at this anniversary celebration it behooves us to ask ‘Why?’ of the Y,” noted Carmen Schrock-Hurst, YPCA co-president 1980-81. “Why,” she wondered, “when there is pressure to study and work to pay the tuition bills, and infinite opportunities to socialize and participate in extra- curricular activities – why do students consistently continue to chose to give of their time and money to keep alive the Y?”

Belief in God’s Word

The answer, she said, is at the heart of what makes EMU unique: a belief in God’s word and the call to find one’s life by losing it. Y participants have exemplified and continue to model the “desire to have education be rooted in the real world and not tucked away in an ivory tower of isolationism,” she said.

Special among the invited guests were representatives at each table from area congregations known as “Y churches,” that is, churches started and/or sustained by participation of YPCA students over the years.

Noted author and speaker David Augsburger, shared how participation in YPCA in the late 1950s helped to form and shape him, and others, for later ministry. Currently a professor of pastoral care at Fuller Theological Seminary, he recalled a formative lesson in pastoral care that he learned through a YPCA contact.

He recalled a walk around a country block in the cold rain with a man from his Y church whose wife had recently died. “I felt ashamed,” Augsburger recalled, “because I could find no words to offer the grieving man. But I came to realize it was enough to simply walk with him, soaked to the bones, in silence.”

‘Sincere desire to serve the church’

“The shape and focus of YPCA has been remolded from time to time, but the sincere desire to serve the church and others in the name of Jesus remains firm,” reflected campus pastor Brian Martin Burkholder after the event. “Students involved in the current YPCA commissions are expressing their faith in passionate ministry, service and outreach.”

Current Y commissions, or programs, include: Saturday adoption, grandparent adoption, prison ministries team, Y-church teams, and spring break Y-trips. More information about them is available on the campus ministries section of EMU’s website, www.emu.edu.

Copies of an eight-page, full-color booklet about YPCA’s 50 years is available on request while supplies last from alumni@emu.edu.

It happens around the second weekend in October each year – scores of former ²ÝÝ®ÉçÇø students return to campus and reconnect with friends and former classmates.

More than a thousand EMU alumni and parents of students are expected to continue that tradition Oct. 13-15, 2006 as they gather to celebrate on the theme, "Setting the Stage: Service & Song."

Among the myriad events scheduled are "EMU on Stage," with performances by students, faculty and alumni, interspersed with humorous skits from the theater department 8 p.m. Fri., Oct. 13 in Lehman Auditorium.

Mennofolk Music

"," a festival of acoustic musicians with Mennonite connections or roots, will provide the main entertainment at this year’s homecoming event.

The Cincinnati-based duo "Over the Rhine" will present a concert 9 p.m. Saturday in Lehman Auditorium. Fifteen other acts – folk, jazz, blues, traditional bluegrass and a capella – will perform at three locations on campus from 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday.

Some of the artists also will perform at three locations in downtown Harrisonburg on Friday night.

A dinner and commemorative reunion marking 85 years of the (YPCA), the oldest student-led Christian service and leadership development organization on campus, will be held 5 p.m. Oct. 14 in the University Commons. Reservations are required.

A worship service 10 a.m. Oct. 15 in Lehman Auditorium will have a music and scripture emphasis. Recipients of the (Catherine Mumaw) and (Claude Good, both members of the class of ’54) will be recognized during the service.

Traditional homecoming features will include reunions 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Oct. 14 for graduating years ending in a "1" or "6," from 1961 to 2001. The "Jubilee Alumni," persons who attended EMU 50 years ago or more, will hold a luncheon and program at 11:30 a.m. that day at the Eastern Mennonite High School dining room.

David Batstone, an entrepreneur, senior editor of "Worthwhile" magazine and professor of social ethics at the University of San Francisco, will speak at the business and economics department breakfast meeting 8 a.m. Oct. 14 during homecoming weekend.

Breakfast meetings will be held Saturday morning for alumni and friends of the business and economics department; nursing department, the science department, Bible and religion department (Haverim), the music department (Encore!) and the language and literature department.

Outstanding alumni athletes will be recognized at a "hall of honor" breakfast Saturday morning. This year’s inductees are Jill Basinger Mullet of Berlin, Ohio, who played basketball and volleyball, 1981-84; and Tim Cressman from Scottdale, Pa., a track and field standout, 1988-91.

History major and pre-law minor alumni and other interested persons are invited to a special luncheon meeting 12:30 p.m. Oct. 14 to hear guest speakers address vocational, ethical and theological themes within a law-related course of study and career. A new student-led law society, "Res Judicata," is developing on campus in connection with EMU’s pre-law minor.

An art exhibit featuring works by Barb Gaucher, an art teacher at Eastern Mennonite High School, will be on display in the of Hartzler Library. A reception for the artist will be held 2:30-4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14.

Varsity field hockey, women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s soccer games are scheduled on Saturday, preceded by a Loyal Royals "fun run" 7:30 a.m. Saturday at the EMU track.

Activities Include Golf Classic

The Paul R. Yoder, Sr., Memorial Golf Classic will be held Fri., Oct. 13 with start times at 7:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at the Spotswood Country Club in Harrisonburg.

Special activities for children (kindergarten through fifth grade) and youth (grades 6 through 9) are scheduled at various times Saturday, and childcare for infants through age 5 will be provided during reunions and at other designated times.

The registration desk in the University Commons will be open 3-10 p.m. Fri., Oct. 13, and 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat., Oct. 14.

"It is a totally new venture for EMU to host a ‘Mennofolk’ event on campus as a part of Homecoming and Family Weekend," said Douglas Nyce, director of alumni-parent relations. "We believe that it will be an attraction for many alumni families, as well as for the Harrisonburg/Rockingham community and beyond.

"Hosting a reunion for the Young People’s Christian Association will also be special, because so many EMU alumni took part in YPCA programs during their years as student," Nyce added. "We look forward to seeing many old friends as well as families of current students here on campus. There will be something for everyone to enjoy!"

For more information, go to www.emu.edu/homecoming/, call the alumni office at (540) 432-4245 or e-mail alumni@emu.edu.

Fifty "Relief Kits" will soon be on their way to needy people in the flood devastated Gulf Coast region, thanks to another disaster response effort at ²ÝÝ®ÉçÇø.

Initiated by pastoral assistants and dubbed the "Katrina-Rita-Rama Relief Race," EMU students, faculty and staff were challenged to provide items for relief kits for (MCC).

The contest involved nine teams – the six residence halls, Parkwood Apartments, Commuter Fellowship and faculty/staff. Each team was assigned one or two items to collect for the kits over a three-week period.

An MCC relief kit consists of four bars bath soap, a package of sanitary pads, a plastic bottle of shampoo, fingernail clippers, a box of adhesive bandages, hairbrush, wide-tooth comb, toothpaste, laundry detergent and bath towel.

Hillside Residence Hall collected the most items – 93 bottles of shampoo – and received bottles of dishwasher liquid a poster of EMU’s "Friday Chapel Announcement mascots" (students Matt Pearson and Becka Rankin) for their efforts.

A student group from Northlawn Third South assembled the kits Tuesday evening, Nov. 1, to send to MCC.

Senior Carissa J. Sweigart of Harrisonburg, one of the student organizers, said she was "excited to see all the donated items coming in," noting, "Fifty kits may not sound like a lot, but with each one valued at $30, the EMU community raised nearly $1,500 on top of previous relief efforts."

An earlier student-initiated fund-raising project brought in nearly $3,400 by the end of September to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. The project was launched during a Sept. 9 chapel service by the (YPCA).

That money was sent to MCC headquarters in Akron, Pa., earmarked for (MDS) work in the Gulf Coast.

A student-initiated fund-raising effort at ²ÝÝ®ÉçÇø raised $3,392.63 as of Wednesday, Sept. 28, toward relief efforts of victims of the Gulf Coast hurricane.

The effort was launched by the (YPCA) during a Sept. 9 chapel service. YPCA co-presidents Rachel A. Sims and Jene� L. High announced the campaign and challenged students, faculty and staff to make donations in buckets placed at strategic locations across campus.

A dedicatory prayer was offered for the check, that will be sent to Mennonite Central Committee headquarters in Akron, Pa., earmarked for Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) work in the Gulf region.

In expressing gratitude for the campus response, Ms. Sims, an EMU junior from Perkasie, Pa., urged everyone to "keep on praying for the many people whose lives have been changed completely" by the hurricanes and flooding.

"I believe that when natural disasters happen, and we see the devastation that happens to fellow human beings, we realize how human we really are, said Ms. High, an EMU junior from Manheim, Pa. "We see that life does not go on, and hard times come to uproot our plans and ideas for the future.

"I think we respond in helping those who are hurting because we recognize that it could be us someday or has been us in the past," High said. "We respond as far as our empathy extends. Humans are about connections. If there is a strong connection to another individual, or situation, we are moved further into empathy. This, in turn, develops our response."

launched a second disaster response during Wednesday’s chapel, being called "The Katrina-Rita-Rama Relief Race" to assemble relief kits for MCC.

During a Sept. 28 chapel, Andrea Kniss (l.) and Carissa Sweigart challenge the EMU assembly to begin collecting items for the MCC relief kits.
Photo by Jim Bishop

EMU seniors Andrea J. Kniss and Carissa J. Sweigart announced the start of the drive with a goal of assembling 200 kits by Oct. 19.

The contest will involve nine teams – the six residence halls, Parkwood Apartments, Commuter Fellowship and faculty/staff. Each team will be assigned one or two items to collect for the kits. The group with the highest number of supplies in kit units at the end of the three-week period will receive a prize.

An MCC relief kit consists of four bars bath soap, a package of sanitary pads, a plastic bottle of shampoo, fingernail clippers, a box of adhesive bandages, hairbrush, wide-tooth comb, toothpaste, laundry detergent and bath towel.

In another campus response to the Gulf Coast devastation, EMU’s athletic department raised $1,396 on Saturday, Sept. 17 during home contests in field hockey, men’s soccer and women’s soccer.

As part of the fundraiser, EMU sold previously-used athletic uniforms from a variety of the school�s 17 sports. Several uniforms dated back over 10 years when the institution was known as Eastern Mennonite College.

Most articles of clothing sold for between $5 and $20, with 100 percent of all money collected going directly to charities aiding in the relief efforts. The initial idea for the fundraiser originated with an EMU student-athlete.

Sufficient quantities of the uniforms remain for a future fundraiser. The athletic department plans to hold an additional sale during EMU�s homecoming celebration on Oct. 15.