- The Record Archives
- Volume CXVIII, No. XXII - December 1, 2005 - news
Students give thanks at their home away from home
The Record
What would happen if you ate three Thanksgiving dinners in a row?
Just ask junior Simon Fortune.
He is one of several CSB/SJU students who couldn't return home this Thanksgiving. Rather than be around campus alone, he and others celebrated their way.
Fortune, who is from Trinidad and Tobago, sat among 35 students Nov. 24 in the dining room of Renner House on College Ave.
All had been invited to the home of Ron and MaryAnn Baenninger to celebrate a Thanksgiving banquet from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Later that day, Fortune enjoyed another feast in the home of Greg Becker of the communication department.
The next day, he and friends got together, making his third holiday meal.
"It was an American tradition done by Trinidadians and Jamaicans," Fortune said.
Football players spent days before and after Thanksgiving in preparation for the second round of NCAA Division III playoffs in Whitewater, Wis., on Saturday.
But even the final game of the season couldn't block the holiday's importance for some Johnnie football players.
"Being my favorite holiday, it's hard to spend Thanksgiving away from family, but it's a sacrifice you just have to make to be part of the Johnnie football team," said sophomore Tom Connelly.
For Fortune, Connelly and others, Thanksgiving is a reminder of all they have.
Fortune said not everyone in United States shares this awareness.
"A lot of Americans think they don't have a culture. They think only foreigners have culture," Fortune said. "And then Thanksgiving comes around and American culture is so much in your face with sales and everything. How come they don't realize this is their culture?"
His first year at SJU brought many simpler firsts: A Thanksgiving meal at roommate Colin Clark's home. A visit to a nearby tree farm. Fortune remembers these events well.
He said the longer he attends an American college, the more this country's holiday comes to mean.
So he couldn't resist teaming up for his third consecutive feast Friday.
Fortune and senior Satomi Akimoto are thankful of the Baenningers.
"It was really nice that [the Baenningers] invited all of us. It was really comfortable," Akimoto said.
Ron Baenninger was already giving in-home tours by the time school vans had shuttled the last stragglers from campus to Renner House shortly after 10 a.m.
The meal was provided by CSB food service.
Hours later, there were still leftovers, said Addy Spitzer, director of international students.
"We had a great time," Spitzer said. "You couldn't ask for a better place to have a party."