Truitt Center For Religious & Spiritual Life

Luminarias bathed the Elon University campus in a soft yellow glow Thursday evening as students, faculty, staff and community members filled Scott Plaza for the annual Holiday Celebration and lighting ceremony, which featured Christmas carols and a visit from – who else? – Mr. and Mrs. Kris Kringle.

Plan to celebrate the season this week with Elon's annual Holiday Celebration at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 3, on Scott Plaza. The traditional event includes sidewalks lined with luminarias, carol singing, hot chocolate, a train ride for children of all ages, and the festive lighting of thousands of lights along Elon's central quad from Alamance Building to Moseley Center.

Loura Burnette and David Olson hosted the quarterly meeting of the Commission on Ministry in Higher Education (CMHE) of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. Almost 30 lay and ordained volunteers and staff representing active campus chaplaincies at more than a dozen private and public institutions of higher education between Raleigh and Charlotte met at Elon on Nov. 14.

Four people who make a difference in the lives of others were honored Monday by Elon University in the 16th annual “Hometown Heroes” awards ceremony on campus. Freshmen class officers selected the honorees for “making a positive difference by touching lives and strengthening their home communities” in a program sponsored by the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life.

Eden Avraham-Katz, a sophomore from Greensboro, N.C., has received a 2009-2010 Grinspoon Israel Advocacy Internship, making Elon University one of 35 campuses nationwide to host a paid intern who will help coordinate pro-Israel programs in the coming year.