Hiram Happenings

The KCPB
Hiram has this cool office/organization/thing that plans great events for us. Some people may think that there is nothing to do in Hiram because we are in the middle of no where. To some extent, this is true. There are not many fast food places, or even entertainment in Garrettsville, the closest little town. But, we have this KCPB thing. They do so much for the students, and i don't think I even know about half of it. Last week, the brought in the Comedian Pete Holmes, who has been on both VH1's best week ever and comedy central. I went to that with some of my girls and it was pretty fun. He had a great sense of humor (obviously) and did a lot of interacting with the audience. A few days later, they hosed a coffee house thing with a country singer. Then, they put on a superbowl party. You can also get a lot of cheap (i.e. FREE) tickets through them. Although I have not taken advantage of it yet, they have a movie night about once a month. Either on a friday or saturday night they provide the transportation to the movie theaters in Aurora. Students sign up for the movie they want to see earlier and the week and pay $5. The money is refunded when you show up tho, so you can basically go to one free movie each month. The KCPB has brough lots of outside entertainment in through out the year so far. We have had countless comedians, hypnotists, musicians, ect. They really do give us stuff to do, and it's not dumb stuff either.


Bread and Soup
Every thursday we have this thing called Bread & Soup. It is held in the KC and students can just use a meal swipe to get in. Community members can come, but they have to pay. Money from each person is donated to help combat hungar both locally and on a bigger scale. I went last night for the first time. They had three different soups, and they were all delicious. The bread was also great, like bread that you actually go up to get seconds. Last night was special tho, because they also had a habitat for humanity auction. During spring break, 2 professors and 16 students will work on a habitat for humanity house. Each person needs to take a $50 donation. To raise they money, they hold an auction. This auction is something to see. They advertised it as a big thing, and let me tell you, it was! Many of the professors, their wives, and sometimes even their mothers, make "famous" food year after year. Here is a list of some of the more famous and coveted things:

*Brad Gubser's famous cheesecakes (plain and caramel swirl)
*Matt Hils & Prudy Hall's homecooked pancake breakfast (for 6-8) & nature walk
*Anita Stocz lasagna dinner (for 12)
*Anne Riedel's famous raspberry chocolate brownies
*Dottie Summerlin's dinner (for 6) featuring her famous cheesy potatoes
*Mario Renzi's flyfishing lessons
*Carol & Al Donley pancake breakfast (for 4)
*Jon Moody's donut party

The cheesecakes easily went for about $50, the lasagna dinner for $150 (after a long struggle between groups of students), the nature walk and pancakes for just less than $100 (also a struggle between eager students. I don't remember what the other went for, but they were all such a hit. That's the thing here. I keep saying how great the professors are, and last night proved it. These students are willingly paying big bucks to have delicious food with their professors. Professors and students get along so well here. I found one of the more interesting deals to be the juggling lessons and bon fire (sorry I don't remember the professor offering it). It is just so cool that there was such a variety. I was not one of the big spenders. I got a little basket with food from our own fair-trade shop. From what I hear, it was opened by students in one of the fall's colloquiums. I will have to go check it out and report back, but they are really advocating the products so far. They are bought from companies that support things like fair treatment and pay of their workers. At any rate, it was a good laugh to listen in during the auction last night. I'll add more later, I'm off for a physics test...... oh joy!

One last thing... they raised $1,400 at the auction!!!!