This year, several campus organizations have collaborated to create an event that should jumpstart the holidays for students.

At 8 p.m. Dec. 3, Volunteer Service Corps, Student Government, Student Union, Residence Life and Housing and Facilities Management are set to host a short interdenominational celebration of the holiday season.

The roofs of all the Quad residence halls will be outlined in rope lights, but the real jewel of the ceremony is a large 14 or 15-foot sap tree that will be put on the Quad and planted elsewhere on campus after the duration of the holiday season.

The actual ceremony, slated to last 45 minutes, should be brief, according to senior Tyler Overstreet, a key organizer involved through the Volunteer Service Corps. Organizers have been able to keep the evening outdoor event short by limiting the number of speakers and length of their speeches for the interfaith ceremony preceding the lighting.

Four of the campus singing groups are also performing: Temporary Reprieve, the Gospel choir, SOUL and Innuendo. Though the groups are picking out their own songs, the organizers hope that they will choose tunes that fit in with the interdenominational feeling of the event.

"We don't have the most traditions, but I think that starting this tradition is important É and it's a good opportunity to do something that the whole campus can be involved in," Overstreet said.

Speakers include Andrew Ettin, an English professor and adviser to the Jewish Student Organization who will speak about the Jewish faith, Father Jude DeAngelo who leads the on-campus Catholic Community, and junior Rosita Najmi of the Baha'i faith. The three were encouraged to read a prayer of their faith or speak about what this time of year means to them. Najmi was happy to provide some background on her faith for the ceremony. "(The organizers) really wanted it to be an event the whole campus could own," she said.

Overstreet affirms the sought-after unity that this event could encourage. "I know it's a really crazy time of year É I have four papers due that week, but it's going to be lovely and well worth 45 minutes of time."The lighting ceremony will conclude with a rendition of "Let There Be Peace on Earth" and the actual lighting done by a staff member surprise guest.

"We wanted to be sure to end on an all-faith note," said Overstreet.

This new tradition that the three groups are hoping to create has been largely funded by outside sources, including a community responsibility grant that Overstreet wrote.

Prior to the actual day, Lovelights will be on sale in Benson through Dec. 3 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. For , buyers will receive a card that they can give to a person or have displayed in the Pit. All the proceeds will be donated to the Samaritan Inn, and according to Overstreet, can feed up to 17 people.

On the afternoon of Dec. 3, student groups are being organized to visit three nursing and retirement homes, the Boys and Girls Club, and the Prodigals Drug Rehabilitation Center. At the first four areas, students will sing carols and hang out with the residents. At Prodigals, the volunteers will prepare and share a meal with the residents there.

In fact, the whole idea sprang out of a leadership conference Overstreet attended, coupled with similar ceremonies that faculty and staff members have seen at other schools.

"The idea fell together very nicely. Faculty and staff have just been really supportive," Overstreet said.

Residence Life and Housing is paying for the cost of lighting the Quad, and Facilities Management donated the tree that will be lit. Decorations will remain up past Christmas Day, though they will probably be removed before students return to campus after New Year's Day.