Photo Blog

On Saturday, March 29, 270 students, faculty and staff took part in the 17th annual Holy Cross Cares Day. Led by co-chairs Yarlennys Villaman ’14 and Lisa Hua ’14, volunteers could be found at sites throughout the city of Worcester, performing service activities that ranged from raking and painting to filling boxed lunches.

Co-chairs Lisa Hua ’14 (left) and Yarlennys Villaman ’14 ready bright and early for their 270 volunteers.

Site leaders gathered in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom with co-chairs Hua (front row, first on left) and Villaman (standing, first on right).

Students cleared more than 3 tons of trash from the streets of the Canal District.

With the Greater Worcester Land Trust, students cleared trash and debris from the East Side Trail, including this abandoned couch.

On Dec. 14, volunteers from the Holy Cross Club of the Capital Region joined Boston College alumni at Arlington National Cemetery to place wreaths at the graves of deceased Crusaders and Eagles.  This joint event, part of a national “Wreaths Across America” effort, aimed to honor our fallen heroes. Through the on-campus research of Rev. Robert Keane, S.J., director of Special Projects in Mission, 15 Holy Cross alumni were identified as being interred at Arlington. If you know of alumni who are buried at the National Cemetery, please contact the Alumni Relations Office at alumni@holycross.edu or 508-793-2483.

In October, Nativity School of Worcester hosted a black tie gala at Worcester’s Mechanics Hall (bathed in Crusader purple, which is also the signature hue of Nativity) to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the school’s opening (and to benefit the school’s ongoing programs to educate young men from Worcester’s most at-risk neighborhoods in the Jesuit tradition). The celebration sold out with 450 attendees who enjoyed cocktails, dinner, dancing, and, of course, a 10th  birthday cake.  “We were all thrilled that so many people came to help celebrate a school that was just a dream ten years ago,” says Patrick T. Maloney ’02, the school’s director of advancement. Maloney is just one of many Holy Cross alumni and student volunteers who work at Nativity, which has a strong relationship with the College.

Sean Dillon ’04, the principal of Nativity School of Worcester, cuts the cake with Matthew Brunell, Crista (Carrick) Mahoney ’02 and one of Nativity’s young students, Naethan, looking on.

Two men from the Holy Cross family who laid the foundation for the Nativity School 10 years ago, and continue to champion it today: Charles “Chick” Weiss, director of grants, foundation and corporate giving for Holy Cross and Nativity Worcester board member and former president of the College, Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J.

Spoiler alert: This young man, an 8th grader at Nativity, will be the subject of a “day in the life” feature in the Winter 2014 issue of Holy Cross Magazine, hitting mailboxes in mid-December.

Photography by Rob Carlin

Over the years, hundreds if not thousands of Worcester-area children have been paired with Holy Cross students through Big Brothers/Big Sisters. The “Bigs” have fun adventures and get togethers with their “Littles” each week, and in the spring, they let loose at the annual Field Day in (where else?) the Fieldhouse.

On Field Day, the “Littles,” including Valentina, (above) shown here with her Big Sister, volleyball player Dana Weston ’15 from Canton, Mass., get to shoot hoops and play other games, hang out, and make crafts…plus lunch and ice cream!

Lacrosse player Jamie Ward ’15 of Glen Rock, N.J., gives his “Little,” Jayden a lift (above).

(Above) Gary Acquah ’14, a defensive lineman for Crusader football from The Bronx, N.Y., says he and his “Little,” Fernando, both enjoyed going to see the Celtics play over the winter.  Fernando’s goal? “He wants to play basketball one day for Holy Cross,” Acquah says.

“Little” Damien (above) was wicked excited about getting the cones set up for a relay game with his “Big,” lacrosse player Tommy Shannon’16 of Andover, Mass.

Created and organized by Holy Cross student Jeff Reppucci ’14 (below, right), Working for Worcester is a citywide project that mobilized hundreds of student volunteers from across Worcester, as well as folks from sponsoring companies, including Unum and The Hanover Insurance Company. After registration and speeches at the morning kickoff event at the Hart Center, groups dispersed to about a dozen work sites to construct new and renovate outdated family spaces, play areas, libraries and more. With tens of thousands of dollars donated, along with supplies and skilled labor, Working for Worcester garnered regional media attention.

At the kick-off event at the Hart Center, College President Rev. Philip Boroughs, S.J., (above left) spoke to the gathered crowd. (Photo by Dan Vaillancourt)

Volunteers posed for a group shot at one of the work sites, the Goddard School of Science and Technology, which serves 586 students from Kindergarten to 6th grade. (Photo by Patrick O’Connor)

One of the Goddard projects was prepping community garden boxes with fresh soil. (Photo by Patrick O’Connor)

At the Elm Park Community School, volunteers painted murals and gave the library and cafeteria a lift. They also installed playground equipment. (Photo by Patrick O’Connor)

Artists like this Crusader seemed to be having a blast at their work site. (Photo by Patrick O’Connor)

At the Worcester Youth Center, the girls’ dance team and a variety of after-school dance programs used a large empty space with a cement floor as their “dance studio.” The cement floor, in particular, was very limiting and possibly harmful to dancers’ knees. Working for Worcester volunteers prepped the space to receive a new, professional-quality hardwood dance studio floor AND a surround-sound corner-mounted speaker system. Walls got fresh paint, mirrors were hung around the perimeter, and a ballet stretching bar was installed on the west side of the room. (Photo by Patrick O’Connor)

The NROTC battalion got its hands dirty at South High School, where a lot of debris and brush around the grounds needed to be cleared to make way for upgraded outdoor play spaces and new plantings. (Photo by Matthew Atanian)

Over at The Belmont Street School, volunteers chalked out and painted basketball, hopscotch and four-square courts to make better use of a paved outdoor area. (Photo by Dan Vaillancourt)

Each year on Holy Cross Cares Day, alumni and students go out into their communities and help with a cleanup or other work project. This year in Worcester, students tackled cleanup in Middle River Park along McKeon Road (across from the lower athletic fields) and alumni cleared brush in Cookson Park just off College Street. The day began with a kickoff breakfast, speakers and registration at the Hart Center, after which volunteers from both groups walked to their sites to begin working.

Photography by Matthew Atanian

Faculty, staff, families and students gathered in the Hart Center for the annual Presidents’ Review, a ceremony during which the midshipmen and Marines of the NROTC unit present themselves in formation to the presidents of the three Worcester institutions in the NROTC consortium: Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester State University and the College of the Holy Cross. Before the formal review, awards were given to outstanding ROTC students by administrators and members of the local military community. Afterward, students and guests gathered for a reception in the main hall of the Hart Center.

Photograph by Deb Endyke P13

Midshipman 3/C James D’Angelo ’15 poses with his parents, John and Suzanne of East Williston, N.Y., at the reception. D’Angelo won the 1st Lt. John Power Memorial Book Scholarship for outstanding non-scholarship student. Named for Worcester native Lt. John V. Power ’41, who was killed in action in World War II and awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, the Memorial Book Scholarship was presented to D’Angelo by Allison Power O’Neil, Lt. Power’s great niece.

Midshipman 3/C Marcus Antonellis ’15 (third from left) of Groton, Mass., earned a certificate and scholarship for outstanding contribution to the sophomore class. Here, he poses at the Hart Center reception with his parents, Tiffani and Jim (far left), his fellow NROTC mates Midshipman 3/C Bennett Rogers ’15 (third from right) of Ridgewood, N.J., and Midshipman 3/C James D’Angelo ’15 (second from right) of East Williston, N.Y., along with D’Angelo’s mother, Suzanne.

Naval Science instructors Lt. James Lee (left) and Lt. Anson Isaacs pose with the ceremonial bell that is rung as each of the review ceremony’s VIP guests arrive and are announced, as they would be if they were boarding a Navy vessel. Lt. Lee explained the origins of the Presidents’ Review at the beginning of the ceremony: “Present day reviews in the Naval service have their basis in both history and tradition. The massed formation of troops on one long line at close interval made possible the concentration of firepower from muzzle-loaded muskets,” he said, adding that the line of battle in those earlier times looked much like the parade formation guests see at the Presidents’ Review today.

Photography by Suzanne Morrissey

Student members of The Beverly Connection and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes are teaming up to sell $2 Valentine’s Day candy grams from Feb. 5 to 13. Part of the proceeds will benefit the Beverly School in Kenya, founded by Holy Cross employee Abdi Aggrey Lidonde. From left, Emilia Froio ’16 of Shrewsbury, Mass.; Conor Faron ’15 of Medway, Mass., and Hope Tobin ’15 of Schodack, N.Y., kept the candy grams moving at the group’s table in the Hogan Campus Center. Tobin, who co-chairs The Beverly Connection with Faron, has visited the school in Kenya, and says, “I was so impressed by what has been accomplished there in such a short time.”

Photograph by Suzanne Morrissey

The Student Government Association (SGA) organized a 3 vs. 3 student/faculty basketball tournament to support relief efforts in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

The tournament took place on Monday, Dec. 3, with a buy-in of $3 per person, all proceeds directly funded vital relief efforts.  There was also a collection of canned goods and donations taken at the event.

Learn about other Hurricane Sandy relief efforts on campus.

Photography by Matthew Atanian.

Lauren McNamara ’11, who is currently teaching in New Orleans through Teach for America, transformed her classroom into a mini-Holy Cross, painting the walls purple and using the mission and values of the College to teach her students about the many possibilities college can provide to them and the numerous possibilities outside the state of Louisiana.

McNamara, who currently teaches sixth grade reading says, “I joined Teach for America after finding my most memorable experiences at Holy Cross were those in which I was out in the community, following the mission ‘men and women for others.’”