The past two weeks have been filled with fall activities and exciting events! Here’s what’s been going on.
On October 23rd, Octaves and Royal Harmony sang in the second performance of the semester. Urban Beats was there to dance as well! The event was sponsored by The Wishmakers, a club on campus that raises money in hopes of one day being able to grant a wish to a child in the renowned Make-A-Wish foundation. This was our first event we decided to wear our “uniforms”, all black with purple ribbons for the girls and ties for the guys. I must admit I think we looked pretty spiffy!
That Saturday, my group of friends and I decided to take a drive into North Abington Township to Roba’s Family Farms. As I recently mentioned in my last article for the Aquinas, this charming farm gives everyone who visits the perfect opportunity to participate in numerous autumn activities. The Farm offers hayrides, pony rides, tetherball, a bounce pillow, pumpkin patches and even more. Of course we couldn’t leave before grabbing a warm cup of apple cider with a side of apple cider doughnuts!
Unfortunately we had to depart from Roba’s a little early due to an extra Octaves rehearsal for me and our friend Victoria having to meet with classmates for a group project, but despite the time restraint we still had a memorable time and made the most of it! I already can’t wait to head back to Roba’s next fall.
My friends Victoria, Veronika, Courtney, Emily and I on the bridge above the Corn Maze.
So as I said, Octaves held an extra rehearsal later that afternoon. Over the summer we were lucky enough to have a friend of Tom, one of the tenors in the group, arrange one of our pieces for the semester: the mash-up of Unconditionally and The Story of My Life. His friend actually took the time to visit to Scranton for the weekend and help us out with the song! Although extra rehearsals might seem like a pain on the surface, I’m always looking forward to spending more time with my fellow singers. It’s rare that groups have the opportunity to work closely with the arranger of a piece; we couldn’t have asked for a better, more eye opening experience.
Flash forward to the next week: Halloween day! This year I signed my roommate and I up for Safe Trick or Treat, an event the University holds every year for local Scranton families to give their kids a safe place to collect some Halloween candy. The children, led by student volunteers and their parents, all decked out in their costumes make their way through different dorm buildings on campus to trick or treat. It adorable watching the kids scrounge through buckets and bags excitedly picking their candy, but what genuinely made me the happiest was knowing that I, along with dozens of other University students, were bringing joy to the less fortunate families in the area.
I’m pretty bummed Halloween is already over; October flew! But as my roommate Courtney says, it’s now officially Christmas season! It’s gradually becoming more and more acceptable to have Christmas songs on replay (Christmas music is without a doubt my favorite aspect of the holiday season). But if I thought that Christmastime creeping up on us excited me, a sign that caught my eye on 2nd floor DeNaples earlier day proved me wrong!
The University of Scranton Programming Board Coffeehouse held an event at 8PM earlier this evening. The event was an acoustic performance by Noah Guthrie. Incase you’re not familiar with the name, Noah was featured as Roderick on season 6 of Glee! Although I never really watched Glee, I was familiar with Noah from his YouTube covers. I couldn’t believe it when I realized he was the guy whose music covers I used to watch all the time in high school! But not only was I fortunate enough to hear his incredibly voice live, I met him after his set! Here’s a picture.
Noah as Roderick in Glee
Me and Noah after the show!
Shout-out to USPB for bringing such a talented voice to Scranton! Seeing Noah Guthrie rocking on stage in DeNaples is now one of my favorite fall semester memories thus far.
Well now that I have you call caught up, I’m ready to get back to editing my section for The Aquinas and writing a short essay for tomorrow. Happy November and I’ll be back next week!
Catherine E. Bombard
Hi! My name's Catherine, but you can call me Catie and I'm a sophomore from Wayne, NJ here at the University of Scranton. I'm an English major, Communication minor hoping to have a career in publishing one day. I'm a member and the publicist of Octaves, an a cappella group on campus, along with being a writer and editor for The Aquinas, the student newspaper. Thanks for checking out the student blogs and I hope you enjoy hearing about my "Scranton Experience"! :)
