Holiday Happenings Photo Album

Santa's Helper: A Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology student puts the finishing touches on assembling one of the 500 bicycles that were part of this year's Bikes For Tykes community service project. More than 300 students spent most of the day on Dec. 15 assembling, inspecting and distributing the bicycles to needy families throughout Indiana and Illinois.

More than 300 members of Rose-Hulman's Greek community, residence halls, athletic teams and other student organizations spent eight hours on Dec. 15 assembling, inspecting and delivering the bicycles to children of needy families for the Exchange Club of Terre Haute's annual Bikes For Tykes program. This is the ninth straight year that Rose-Hulman students have assisted with this effort.

"Rose-Hulman students play an important role in this project. We couldn't deliver all of these bicycles without them being assembled by the students," stated Dale Long, Rose-Hulman's director of news services and Bikes For Tykes project co-chair for the Exchange Club. "The Greek community and other Rose-Hulman students look forward to this project each year . . . It's nice to see our students giving back to the community."

Bikes For Tykes is one of many projects that Rose-Hulman student groups have completed for this holiday season. The long list includes hosting parties for Big Brother Big Sisters and Ryves Hall Community Center children; collecting donations for The Terre Haute Tribune-Star's annual Christmas Basket Fund and Salvation Army; collecting clothing and canned good donations for Terre Haute's 14th & Chestnut community agency.

Converting Rose-Hulman's Facilities Operations Center into a make-shift Santa's Workshop, student teams scattered throughout 40 work stations, eight tire air pressure filling stations and 20 inspection stations, using tools provided by the Indiana Air National Guard, in a scene that. Once completed the bicycles were sorted in 11 different areas, by size and gender, for deliver by community service agencies, school groups and church organizations to families within a 60-mile radius of campus

All of the bicycle kits were assembled within two-and-a-half hours, just in time for the first families and agencies that arrived around noon to take their bicycles home for Christmas presents.

"It gets me in the Christmas spirit," Ryan Pepmeier, a senior computer engineering major, told The Tribune-Star. He joined other members of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity to help for the third straight year. He unloaded kits at the start of the day (8:30 a.m.) and helped make deliveries throughout the afternoon. "It's very, very amazing to see the little faces when the kids come in," he said.

Resembling Santa's Workshop: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology's Facilities Operations Center was turned into Santa's Workshop on Dec. 15 as students, faculty and staff members assembled, inspected and distributed 500 bicycles in the Terre Haute community's annual Bikes For Tykes project.

Delta Delta Delta sorority member Leah Howard, a sophomore biomedical engineering major, told the newspaper that the handle bars were the trickiest part of the assembly process, because sometimes the handle brake wires get twisted.

Andy Steward, a junior biomedical engineering major, said the hardest part was staying out of each other's way because so many people come to help. Steward and his fraternity brothers didn't rush through building the bicycles, choosing quality over quantity.

"It's fun, and it's an event you can see what you did . . . You can see the final product -- 500 bikes in a row is pretty impressive," Steward said.

Other students have been involved in the following holiday events:

• Helping Others: Sue Warnock and Michelle Poorman of The Terre Haute Tribune-Star accept this year's check to the newspaper's Christmas Basket Fund from American Society of Civil Engineers' officers Matt Trowbridge and Sebastian Mendes.  The student chapter continued its tradition of being one of the largest donors to the annual holiday community project.

  Donating To Christmas Basket Fund: The Cecil T. Lobo student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers once again helped ensure that families had a bountiful Christmas dinner through The Terre Haute Tribune-Star's Christmas Basket Fund. More than $2,300 was collected by chapter members through a 2 1/2-week campus drive.
  
  "It's just awesome to see how the Rose-Hulman community comes together and helps out for something like this," said Matt Trowbridge, ASCE chapter president. "...That's what I like to see every year. It just feels good to be involved in something like this as a student, to know that you're helping out your community that you're living in." 
  

  
  Michelle Poorman and Sue Warnock, Tribune-Star basket organizers, said they look forward to the Rose-Hulman donation every year because it's always enough to reach, or come very close to reaching, the goal.
  
  "... It's still very generous and they work real hard to get it," Warnock said about the donation.
  
  Sebastian Mendes, ASCE secretary, added: "... It's important for Rose-Hulman to give back to the community that Rose-Hulman is situated in and I think it's a good way to do that, especially during the holiday season."
   
• Greek Night Donations: All 11 campus Greek organizations used a Greek Night basketball game promotion on Dec. 17 to collect canned goods and monetary donations to the Salvation Army's annual kettle fund-raising campaign and food pantry. The event was organized by the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.
   

Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity conducted its annual holiday party for area youngsters.

• Hosting Holiday Parties: Members of the Alpha Tau Omega and Lambda Chi Alpha fraternities hosted holiday parties for youths in the Big Brother Big Sister and Ryves Hall Youth Center community programs. "We really enjoy being able to be involved in the community and help everyone enjoy the Christmas season," said Ben Walter of ATO.

 
• Painting The Town: Members of Rose-Hulman's eight fraternity chapters grabbed paint brushes to give a fresh coat of paint to the hallways and two apartments on four floors of the United Cerebral Palsy office in downtown Terre Haute. The Inter-Fraternity Council provided $500 to purchase the paint and all supplies required for the project.
   
• Ringing Bells: The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity assisted with Terre Haute's annual Clothe-A-Child community project and served as bell ringers for the Salvation Army's kettle campaign.
   
• Candy Grams For Others: Delta Delta Delta sorority members sold Candy Grams to collect a sizable monetary donation to assist a local needy family during the holiday season.