Hilltop Holiday
Student Foundation sponsored 35 underprivileged children fromSMU’s Inter-Community Experience Center Sunday night at the26th annual Celebration of Lights.
The 30-minute outdoor celebration took place amid a sea of100,000 tiny white lights, which illuminated the center of campus.The columns of Dallas Hall and surrounding trees were lit, and rowsof luminaries lined the campus walkways.
The surrounding communities joined with faculty and students toenjoy a night of holiday performances.
A student chamber choir from Garland High School started theevening with non-traditional Christmas carols as the crowd gatheredaround.
SMU President R. Gerald Turner read the Christmas story from theNew Testament (Luke 2:1-20). As the story of Jesus’ birth wasread to the crowd, children lit small white candles that had beengiven to them at the beginning of the ceremony.
Before the close of the celebration, the SMU Christmas tree waslit.
The original ceremony began in 1977 as a way for students tothank university donors and spread holiday cheer. As a student,Mike Miller (class of 1977) founded the SMU Student Foundation,which lead to the start of the popular “Celebration ofLights” holiday ceremony.
However, for the past six years, there has been an additionalpurpose for the festival. The ICE Center has been bringing childrenfrom low-income, multi-ethnic East Dallas neighborhoods to thecelebration.
SMU students have tutored the children during the past schoolyear in hopes that they will grasp the importance of an educationand realize that college is not an impossible goal.
Students taking urban studies classes tutor and organizeenrichment activities for children who attend Robert E. LeeElementary School. The ICE program has had an incredible impact notonly on the children and parents who live in East Dallas, but alsoon the SMU students directly involved in their lives.
On Sunday these children joined the SMU community gatheringtogether to sing and admire the glory of Christmas on the SMUcampus.
In addition to the celebration, SMU students who participate inthe program sponsor a child and buy gifts for them.
The ICE program originally was an idea introduced in 1989 by anundergraduate SMU student, Chris Lake and Chaplain WilliamFinnin.
Soon after Finnin and Lake drafted a plan, Dedman College thenestablished ICE in 1991.
“It’s a fun time for these kids,” Finnin said.”It’s a way for them to connect to SMU early on andduring a very special occasion.”
