The communication sciences and disorders (CMDS) department will be hosting a Christmas Tree Lighting event in the center of Ouachita’s campus on Dec. 1. There will be a book drive and free hot chocolate provided in conjunction with the tree lighting.
“We put tons of Christmas tree lights on it,” said senior CMDS major Chelsy Lewis. “It will be really pretty.”
Nearly all of the CMDS majors are involved in some way with the tree lighting, whether putting up Christmas lights or handing out hot chocolate. Lewis is in charge of organizing the tree lighting.
“It is my first year to really be in charge of it,” Lewis said. “It is [also] the first year for it to have a fundraiser.”
Even though this is Lewis’s first year to run the event, it is not new to the CMDS department. Nancy Hardman, Linn Professor of Communication Sciences and Pre-Med Studies, and her family play a big part in the tree lighting.
“My daughter had heard some of my stories from my OBU student days,” Hardman said. “She thought it would be fun to do [the tree lighting], so she convinced her dad to cut a tree and conned him into putting it up on campus.”
Every year since, Hardman’s husband has chosen a tree on their property in advance and that has been the tree featured in the tree lighting.
“My husband picks a tree a couple of years ahead of time and then fertilizes and trims it,” Hardman said. “He cuts it down and hauls it to campus.”
The book drive portion of the event is for Reach Out and Read of Arkansas. The books will go to pediatric offices in Arkansas who will give the books to children when they leave the doctor’s office. This program specifically targets children in low income families.
“They believe that children need to be read to as early as possible,” Lewis said. “It really helps with their development.”
The books are not only for the children who come to the doctor. They are for the parents as well.
“It helps the parents get involved and teach them how they can interactively read with their child,” Lewis said.
Ouachita students and anyone else who attends the tree lighting are invited to bring any new or gently used age appropriate books for children between six months and five years of age.
“It will kind of be like a Christmas present to the foundation Reach Out and Read and also to the local children,” Lewis said.
Last year when the tree lighting took place, more than one hundred people came. This year Lewis says they are hoping for more.
“We are hoping it to be bigger this year,” Lewis said. “We are doing the book drive so more people will actually participate in it.”
In the previous year bystanders at the event helped participate in the Christmas atmosphere.
“They sang carols,” Lewis said. “No one was assigned to come out and [sing]; people who were just there started.”
Also included in the event is the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA) and Carol Morgan, associate professor of communication disorders.
“It’s something fun we are involved in on campus,” Lewis said. “[It is] something to do to celebrate Christmas.”
The book fair event will take place on Dec. 1 and the tree itself will remain on campus until students leave for Christmas break.
Picture by Nicole McPhate.
