Washington College Rallies Support for Relay for Life

Chestertown, MD — The Kent County Relay for Life is a community gathering where everyone can participate in the fight against cancer. The Relay begins at the Kent County High School Track, in Worton, Maryland, on September 5 at 6 p.m. and concludes September 6th at 10:00 a.m. Support the faculty, staff, student, and alumni participants from Washington College in their effort to raise funds for the American Cancer Society through donations or by attending the event. Check the progress of the campus community members who are participating in this year's Relay for Life.

If you are interested in participating or volunteering during the Relay, or to make a donation, please contact Tessa Duquette in the Campus Events Office in Bunting Hall, 410-778-7888 or e-mail her at tduquette2@washcoll.edu.

Schedule for the Kent County Relay for Life

Friday, September 5, 2008

6:00 p.m. The Survivors Lap
The traditional cancer survivor lap is everyone who has survived cancer. They will take the ceremonial first lap around the track. Once the survivors go half way around the track, family members and caretakers may join the survivors for the second half of the lap. Upon finishing the lap, you and your loved ones are invited to the survivor reception.

7:00 p.m. The Relay officially begins!

7:00 p.m.
Silent Auction begins.

7:30 p.m.
Cherae Ensor (a local Zumba instructor), and friends will be performing several Zumba dances on the mainstage. If you've gone to her classes, and want to participate, please come and join the fun!

8:30 p.m. The Luminaria Ceremony
Luminarias (bags with candles inside them) can celebrate the surviorship of people who have battled cancer, or also can commemorate the lives of those who have been lost to the disease. All represent a person who has profoundly affected by cancer and the family and friends who will continue to be touched by that experience. The lighting of the luminaries will happen at dusk.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

6:00 a.m.
If you happen to be at the track this early in the morning, please come and join Mike Duquette, at the Mainstage, for a morning "power hour" (stretching, warming up - and possibly waking up!)

8:30 - 9:30 a.m.
Come and take a Zumba class!
Cherae Ensor will be teaching a Zumba class on the mainstage. Zumba is a fun and effective latin dance fitness program.

10:30 a.m. The Relay's Closing Ceremony

The Raffle!

As part of a campus effort to raise money, tickets for several raffle prizes, will be sold for $1.00 raffle in the Campus Events Office in Bunting Hall. Beginning on Monday, August 25th, the raffle tickets will also be sold in the Dining Pavilion during lunch hours (11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.).

• A vase from Rachel's Flower Power
• A framed photo of the Chestertown Waterfront from Finishing Touch
• Vera Bradley Bag from the Washington College Bookstore
• Vera Bradley mousepad and notepad from the Bookstore
• Vera Bradley wallet from the Bookstore
• (6) Zumba classes with Cherae Ensor at the Kent Athletic Center
• A bouquet of flowers from Galena Blooms (redeemed at the Chestertown Farmers Market)

The drawing for the raffle and the announcement of which class has won the Penny Wars will take place at the Relay for Life, on Friday, September 5, at 8:00 p.m.

July 30, 2008

March 28th Student Conference To Address Ethnic Diversity And The American Identity

Chestertown, MD, March 25, 2002 — Washington College and Goucher College are proud to present "Redefining the American Identity: A Student Conference on Ethnic Diversity," Thursday, March 28, 2002, at 4 p.m. in the College's Casey Academic Center Forum. The conference will open with keynote speaker Dr. Seble Dawit, a former human and women's rights consultant in Africa and now director of the peace studies program and visiting assistant professor at Goucher College, Towson, MD. All members of the community are encouraged to attend.

Twelve students will present papers addressing the complex issue of ethnic diversity and national unity in the United States. The presentations will tackle such issues as civil rights, religious freedom and identity, and the variety of and change in people's political and social worldviews since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2002.

Session I will begin at 4:30 p.m., addressing the issue "Where Self-Identity and National Identity Meet: Looking at Solutions to Conflict." Session II will begin at 7:30 p.m. and address the issue of "E Pluribus Unum: Making it Work." Keynote speaker, Dr. Dawit, will conclude the conference at 9:30 p.m.

"The goal of the conference is to make students really think deeply about the complexities of these questions and to offer their analysis and potential solutions to these pressing issues of our society," says Bonnie Ryan, organizer of the conference and Jessie Ball Dupont Scholar in sociology and anthropology at the College. "After the tragedy of September 11, the question of our nation's diversity and unity really came to the fore. The attacks affected thousands of people of different backgrounds, nations, races and creeds, while others acted out in anger against innocent Arab-Americans. This conference will serve as a forum for our students to explore and to discuss these issues that support or challenge the diversity of the United States and the unifying forces of democracy that hold our nation together."

This student conference is sponsored by the Goldstein Program for Public Affairs, Goucher College, the Campus Events Office, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Lambda Alpha, the Anthropology Honors Society-Gamma Chapter, and the Black Student Union.

Writer, Performer and Blues Singer Arthur Flowers to Perform at Washington College February 14th

Chestertown, MD, January 31, 2002 — In celebration of Black History Month, writer, storyteller and blues singer Arthur Flowers will present an evening of performance literature and music, Thursday, February 14, 2002, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the Washington College's Norman James Theatre, William Smith Hall. The concert is free and the public is invited to attend.

Flowers is the author of two novels, De Mojo Blues and Another Good Loving Blues, a children's book Cleveland Lee's Beale Street Band, and the forthcoming nonfiction book, Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21st Century Conjureman. He writes and performs as a "literary hoodoo man" to bridge the gap between Western literary culture and African oral traditions. He is the co-founder of the New Renaissance Writer's Guild and teaches creative writing at Syracuse University.

Flowers considers himself a contemporary griot, referring to the storytellers of ancient African societies who passed on the history of their people to future generations through the oral tradition. Using "performance literature" as the medium, Flowers accompanies his presentations with African instruments and rhythms.

Although a native of Memphis, Flowers did not discover blues music and culture until he moved to New York to become a writer after serving in Vietnam. While researching the blues and the Hoodoo religious tradition, he became more deeply dedicated to uncovering the African traditions that have influenced American culture and to making the African vernacular a greater power and living part of our nation's literary tradition and language forms.

The performance is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee, the Washington College Chapter of Cleopatra's Daughters and the Office of Campus Events.

For more information on these or other events at Washington College, call the Campus Events Office at 410-778-7888.