Parents arrive for 50th JPW
JOHN FANNING
News Writer
The 50th annual Junior Parents' Weekend officially begins at 9 p.m. tonight in the Joyce Center, and continues through Sunday afternoon. However, the weekend's upcoming events have been in planning with various campus groups since last April.
The group leading the effort is the JPW committee, which was formed last April when students applied for positions through Student Activities. Chuck Lamphier was appointed chair of the group and has worked with a vice-chair and a committee of 17 other students since last spring, to facilitate the planning of all of the weekend's events.
"It's a bigger thing than I expected it to be," said Lamphier, who added that all preparations are essentially complete. "It's been a lot of fun, and I have a great group of people that I've been working with."
What the junior class and their parents will witness this weekend is merely the end-product of many months of hard work and preparation involving not only the JPW committee, but also the staff of the Joyce Center, Catering by Design and the Center for Continuing Education, among many others.
According to Lamphier, all three groups have been extremely helpful. The CCE was hired to handle all of the registration for the event. The staff members of the Joyce Center will be doing all of the setting up and taking down of the approximately 475 tables that will be used to seat the almost 4,000 participants.
Moreover, as a result of the high attendance for this year's event, Catering by Design, a campus department responsible for providing all of the food for the upcoming weekend, has been extremely busy. According to Lisa Wenzel of Catering by Design, the group has been preparing since September, using both dining halls and the food service reserve space to get ready for the weekend. In fact, even the Morris Inn has been involved, hosting a lottery through the JPW committee in order to fairly distribute its much desired rooms to the parents coming in for the weekend.
Overall, the weekend, which is themed "Love Thee Notre Dame," should be a great time for everyone involved. All the events take their name from the Alma Mater, with the gala on Friday entitled "Gleams Thy Gold and Blue" celebrating Notre Dame's past. The biggest event is the "Golden is Thy Fame" dinner on Saturday night, which focuses on Notre Dame's present, and the accomplishments of its current students. Finally, the "Our Hearts Forever" brunch on Sunday is a kind of send-off for the parents, and features speakers looking forward to the future of Notre Dame.
As a result of the work of so many members of the Notre Dame community, it seems almost inevitable that JPW will be a huge success, as it has been for the last fifty years. Or in the words of Junior Class President Matt Smith, it will continue to be, "One of those traditions that just makes sense."
All News Stories for Friday, February 15, 2002
