This year marks the 40th anniversary of the iconic covered bridge that spans the Yellow Breeches Creek.  Ken Mark ’72, now director of the Oakes Museum at Messiah College, was one of two work-study students who assisted with the disassembling, relocating and reconstructing the covered bridge from Bowmansdale, two and a half miles away, to Messiah.

Prior to its relocation, the bridge had fallen into severe disrepair. According to Mark, “The macadam road surface had developed potholes such that you could see straight down to the creek underneath.” Likewise, the original cedar shingles on the roof had been replaced with tin which was also deteriorating rapidly and starting to affect the wood beams underneath. Overall Mark remembered, “The bridge was ugly.” (more…)

The game quickly becoming a world-wide phenomenon found a place at Messiah College this summer. Completing each hole in the fewest number of throws with the target of an elevated metal basket, disc golf tops the lifetime fitness chart and is the perfect sport for all ages, shapes and sizes. By installing a course at Messiah College, students, alumni and faculty members hope for players to engage in the beautiful campus while getting great exercise.

As many question the exact birth of this game, most experts give credit to George Sappenfield. Discovering that kids could play golf with Frisbees in 1965, Sappenfield presented the idea to Ed Headrick, an employee of a Frisbee company. Gaining popularity, a group in Rochester, NY held the first national disc golf championship in 1974. Two short years later, Headrick, deemed the “Father of Disc Golf,” started the Disc Golf Association. Today, the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) governs and sanctions rules, tournaments and its 40,000 members. The PDGA predicts 8-12 million people play the sport, estimating a 12-15% annual growth rate. With 3,485 courses world-wide, disc golf continues to spread around the globe. (more…)

While dance currently is an accepted form of both recreation and study — a dance minor began in the fall of 2010, and this past fall a dance major was added — for many years Messiah College, as a part of its founding Brethren in Christ denomination, took a firm standpoint against it. “The major source for opposition to dancing over the years basically came from the denomination, which was opposed to a number of ‘worldly’ activities, including dancing, playing cards, attending movies,” said Morris Sider, a member of the College’s faculty from 1963 to 2009. (more…)

When we roll out of bed each morning a similar routine typically ensues: flip on the lights, take a shower, start the coffee maker, watch the news, pop bread in the toaster, read e-mails, blow dry hair, and open the garage door. What often gets overlooked in this whole process is the amount of electricity we use. Students at Messiah, however, are combating over-use of electricity by encouraging each other to “turn it off.”

Why “Turn it Off?”
The “Turn if Off” campaign, funded by a PA Department of Environmental Protection grant, is a student initiative born out of Earthkeepers, the biology club that educates students about Christian stewardship to God’s creation, and the Restoration House, a community of students living in an off-campus house who commit to limit energy use and reduce waste. The energy reduction campaign they proposed inspired creative and fun competition among students living in campus apartments.

The real objective of the “Turn if Off” campaign goes much farther than friendly competition; it serves a dual purpose of preparing students to receive and understand real utility bills and also to track their energy use in campus apartments. Students residing in apartments receive monthly electric bills, showing them the amount of kilowatt hours they consumed, how much their apartment’s electric costs and the overall use of each apartment building. By sending students mock bills, the College hopes to bring awareness to lifestyle choices, promote responsible living as stewards of God’s creation and lower overall electricity consumption at Messiah. (more…)

On a typical Wednesday night, Messiah College students are scattered across campus: in the library putting the finishing touches on a paper due the next day, getting one step closer to fulfilling their chapel credit by attending an alternate chapel, or even walking to the Union for the weekly B-Sides concert. However, this fall, there was a group of students working together on Wednesday evenings on something that extended past the walls of Messiah College. (more…)

Beautiful weather and record-setting crowds made for a fantastic Homecoming weekend, October 15-16, at Messiah!

More than 2,000 people attended Homecoming, enjoying everything from class reunions, to many family activities, to a big picnic, to high-scoring athletic events.

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If campus seems just a smidge busier this year, it’s for a good reason—Messiah exceeded all of its enrollment goals for the 2010-11 academic year!

The Class of 2014 is comprised of a total of 727 first-year students. In addition, 123 transfer and returning students joined the Messiah community. That means the College’s undergraduate enrollment is 2,826.

Add in the three graduate programs—masters degrees in counseling, conducting, and art education—and Messiah College’s total enrollment tops off at 2,958 students!

Messiah’s student body also got richer in diversity as international students and students from underrepresented ethnic and cultural populations now comprise more than 13% of Messiah’s enrollment.

When the Class of 2014—consisting of students from across the country and around the world—moved to campus last week, they already shared some things in common, according to the annual Beloit College Mindset List, a summary of touchstone moments in each generation’s growing up experience. (more…)

Back-to-back winter storms walloped the Harrisburg area this past week, dumping a total of nearly three feet of snow on a region unaccustomed to such accumulations.  The second storm, which moved in during the evening on February 9 and brought blizzard conditions throughout the day on February 10, caused the cancelation of classes and closing of campus for two days.

Throughout the storm and in its aftermath, members of the College’s operations team, including facility services, grounds, campus events, safety, and dining services worked diligently with the residence life staff to meet the needs of students and ensure the safety of the physical campus during the snowstorm. (more…)

Mary (Walters) Ebersole recalls an unexpected turning point in her education in 1957.

When the Russians successfully launched Sputnik into orbit on October 4 of that year, Ebersole remembers her teacher telling her class, “We just have to keep up with the Russians!” This mindset was widespread and framed education as a competitive practice as much as a learning opportunity.

By the time Ebersole came to Messiah College in the mid-1960s, the country was fully engaged in the Vietnam War. But, even amongst national turmoil, Ebersole recalls finding a “resting place” at Messiah.

Listen Up! as Rebecca (Ebersole) Kasparek `96 and Mary (Walters) Ebersole `68 talk about life at Messiah College in the 1960s.

It is officially Earth Week – the start of an all-week celebration leading up to Earth Day on April 22.  This year Earth Day celebrates its 40th anniversary, and Messiah College, in commemoration of this significant anniversary, is launching Green@Messiah, a website devoted to sharing the College’s sustainability efforts over the past 40 years.

And, yes, Messiah has been actively caring for creation for nearly 40 years!

In 1971, just months after the first Earth Day, Messiah was offering a course – “Man and His Environmental Problems” – that inspired students to organize an Environmental Concerns committee on campus. Since then, many Messiah students have been passionate about environmental issues and have partnered with the College on exciting projects like planting and harvesting a community garden, engineering and constructing solar vehicles, and restoring the banks of the on-campus Yellow Breeches Creek.

It’s true that environmental stewardship isn’t just the latest trend at Messiah College. It’s a way of life.

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