Marywood held it’s annual tree lighting, which kicks off the holiday season here on campus, on Wednesday, Dec. 5. Students, faculty, and staff gathered in the Rotunda of the Liberal Arts Center and celebrated the lighting ceremony.

As part of the tradition, each club on campus creates their own ornament, which represents their club and its beliefs, and places it on the tree during the tree lighting ceremony.

In case you missed the ceremony, make sure you stop by the Rotunda to check out these ornaments created by Marywood’s clubs.

Members of Kappa Delta Pi (KDP), a professional education organization, made the three Greek letters and colored them purple and green. They also wrote “kappa,” “delta,” and “pi” on them.  Also participating is the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA). PSEA’s ornament is a wreath of crayons.

The Psychology Club decided to create a Sigmund Freud head with a Santa hat as their ornament.

Sarah Wright, senior and Psychology Club president, said that Freud has become like the club’s mascot, appearing on their shirts and now the club’s ornament. “He represents psychology, and people poke fun at him, but he was brilliant,” Wright said.

The Speech and Hearing Club created their logo, with “Speech and Hearing Club” written in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) underneath, which looks like: (/spitʃ ænd hɪrɪŋ kləb/).

The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) made a puzzle ornament with a circular light blue background, and then on the background each student made a puzzle piece out of white painted rotelle noodles, resembling a snowflake.

The Volunteer in Action (VIA) Club decided to personalize their ornament and incorporate each member. VIA created an ornament wreath, and each member traced and cut out their hands and put the hands together to create the leaves of the wreath.

Psi Chi also wanted to add their own special twist to the tree and put the Psi Chi symbol in the center of the ornament and then decorated it by surrounding the outside with a “string of lights.”

“I enjoyed creating our ornament,” said Katey Varunok, senior Psychology major. “It got us into the spirit of Christmas and is a good way to represent the club. It makes it fun and makes people want to know more.”

The Business Students Association (BSA) created their Christmas ornament from recycled products to focus on the sustainability aspect of Net Impact and its mission.

The Biology Club and American Chemical Society (ACS) also reflected their clubs by creating two ornaments. One is a DNA helix and the other is a type of molecule.

The Ally Club will have a rotating ornament on the tree. The club created three dimensional triangles in different colors, like the rainbow.

The Dance team also participated and created a wire sculpture ballerina with a tulle tutu to add some creativity.

Autism Speaks’ ornament is a snowman with a hat decorated with the official chapter logo from Autism Speaks.

The International Club created an ornament ball using colored wires. The number of bells on the ornament represents the number of different countries our international students come from.

POW also created a one-in-a-million snowflake and pasted “POW” on its front. “No two snowflakes are the same, and with that idea POW embraces the unique talents each of our members bring to the organization,” said senior Elementary and Early Education Major and treasurer, Ashley Marie Burke.

Each ornament reflects the club that created it and shows that no matter how diverse Marywood may be, everyone is brought together during the holiday season.

The tree, a 19-foot Douglas Fir, will remain lit in the Rotunda until early January. Stop by to check out The Wood Word’s ornament, too.