Our Generation's Pearl Harbor

By Curtis Dunlap

For most people September eleventh is a day that will live in infamy, comparable almost to that of the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor December seventh 1941. Many of us on campus remember being in elementary school, in recess or eating lunch and then going back to their rooms only to be confused by the teachers reaction to something on the television. Even if we weren’t directly affected by the attacks at the time we have all come to realize the full impact of that day. It was a day that started war, a war that would be one of the longest in American history. By this time if someone wasn’t hurt by the attacks, they are now. Many friends and family joined the armed forces to fight this terror. Many lives were lost in the war. People started to question the motive of the war, questioning our purpose in the Middle East. Was it to protect the indigenous people who live there? Or was it for oil? Why did we have to be there? It was almost like the Vietnam “police action”. Many were opposed to Americans going to fight someone else’s war, and for what?

Joe Strauch remembers 11 years ago

Joe Allen thinks about where he
 was and how he was effected 

Junior Joe Allen remembers where he was that day 11 years ago.  “All the teachers were talking about it. The TV was on but it was turned so we couldn’t see anything. At the time it had no effect on me, I was just confuse about what was going on”. For many of us that’s how it was.  Not knowing what was happening but having that feeling that something terrible was happening. Joe Strauch, a freshman, was in second grade and remembers “everyone panicking in school. And when I got home my mom was watching TV crying. I wondered why this would make my mom cry and didn’t really pay it much attention.” Personally what I remember is coming back from somewhere and my teacher looked distraught. Somehow someone had heard something and was saying that there was going to be a plane crashing into our school.  Among our small class there was a panic that was palpable but was soon eliminated by our teacher who reassured us that that was not going to happen. Tyler Beauchamp, a junior, remembers his fourth grade class that day. “Everyone was talking about it but no one would or could explain what was going on.”  At the time it had no effect on him either. At this point in our lives, being nine or ten, we didn’t know anything like that could happen. How could we have been prepared for something like that? How could anyone.

Tyler Beauchamp 

What would have had the most impact on us would have been coming home to our parents being home with the TV on watching the news and planes crashing into buildings. I couldn’t help but think “what movie is this?” only to later realize that it had actually happened. The next few days some of my friends weren’t in school. I knew a handful of people who had relatives working on the top floors of the towers who didn’t make it. Reflecting on it now it is more and more painful to go back and watch documentaries about it. The ones I was shown in school had footage of people jumping out of the buildings and hitting the awnings. So we could literally hear death.  It was a day that would live in infamy, a day that would start a war, a day we won’t forget. September 11, 2001.

AU Student Organization Picnic Kick Off

By Curtis Dunlap

The annual Avila kickoff was held Thursday august 30. It consisted of Mass followed by a cookout with games, prizes, caricatures, custom license plates, hula hooping, balloon creations and back massages. Many students crowded to the balloon station and caricatures like every year. Students and staff also seemed to enjoy the spread that warm morning. The food tent was packed from the start of the picnic to the end. Chicken and lemonade were of the most popular food and drink.

The quad was packed with student athletes, campus ministry members, faculty and staff, making maneuvering and finding a place to sit a bit difficult. The wait in line for caricatures, back massages and balloons must have been worth it because the entire time, there were lines. Overall though, it was a successful kickoff of the 2012 academic year.

(several student sit surrounding the fountain anticipating their turn to get a balloon creation. Kayla Grieshaber, Melissa Ingram, Taylor Autoo, and Clara Scott all except Clara of which are members of campus ministry.)

 

Campus Ministry: On A Mission

By Curtis Dunlap

  The Campus ministry organization does many things to help improve our knowledge on goings on around campus as well as in other states. Rachel Beard, campus ministry co-leader of service pillar, stated that “this year there are many events planned and all are welcome to join”. A possible destination for the campus ministry team is wayside waifs, an animal adoption clinic that specializes in finding homeless animals a permanent place to call home.

                      (Rachel Beard, co-leader of the service pillar, with freshman Dayton Antley)

Campus ministry may also be involved in funerals, being pallbearers. There is a service hospice house, Ronald McDonald house dinner February second, the Jerusalem farm service retreat, habitat for humanity, November 17 starts the week of giving. There will also be a Christmas in October. “The Christmas project this year is being called ‘operation Christmas child’”. The plan is to get shoe boxes, put seven dollars in and fill it with toys to give to kids.

Joe Allen a junior in campus ministry says “we have prayer nights Mondays and Wednesdays with food. They last about an hour”. There will be three mission trips throughout the year, one in January, one over spring break and on in May. Dave Armstrong is the campus ministry leader, there are three pillar teams, Rachel beard is co-leader of the service pillar, the prayer team has Allie and Katie as pillar leaders and the community pillar leaders Rebecca Younker and Brittany. Each pillar does what their pillar is, prayer team prays, community does community work and service team goes out and volunteers at organizations.