Here we are in the thanksgiving season of the year and I have been overwhelmed with the generosity and concern of our Honors Program community this year.  What have we been up to, you ask?  The answer is that we have been involved in three significant charitable activities.  A few weeks ago, Linda Pollock, the president of our Student Advisory Council asked me if I thought there would be interest on the part of our students and faculty in adopting a family for the Holiday Gift Basket Program sponsored by the Christian Appalachian Project in Mt. Vernon. I encouraged her to use our list serve to see what level of interest there was.  Well, the response was so high that we adopted six families or a total of twenty-six people.  As if that was not impressive enough, gifts valued at $25.00 each had to be purchased for each person, the gifts had to be wrapped and tagged with the identification number of each family, and the gifts had to be delivered to the sponsoring organization in Mt. Vernon. And so the gifts came rolling into our office until the storeroom was full of beautifully wrapped gifts.  Just walking into the room brought tears of warmth and joy into my eyes.  Thanks to everyone who participated in this effort, and a special thank you to Linda Pollock who did most of the additional work of labeling and delivering the packages.  Imagine all the joy we will create as these gifts are opened.
     The second activity was called the "I Am thankful Walk for Fun", an event sponsored by the EKU Parks and Recreation Department.  Their idea was to organize a walk the Saturday before Thanksgiving with all of the money raised going to support one charity.  This year's charity was Willis Manor, a low income residence in Richmond which serves one hundred people.  The goal was $10,000.00 which would provide money for a holiday basket for each resident in the amount of $100.00.  In addition, gifts in kind were solicited for construction of a picnic shelter for the enjoyment of the residents in warmer weather. This event was a huge success and will likely become an annual affair with a different local charity chosen each year.  The participants from the Honors Program raised $562.00, second only to what was raised by the Big Mart in Richmond with Arkansas connections, if you get my drift.  Congratulations to Honors Program students Jeremiah Alexander and Kristina Maurer who were first and second in the contest I created to challenge the students to see who could get the most pledges for this walk.  And, guess what?  I even did the walk and enjoyed it very much.
     And the third activity is this Saturday, the 3^rd of December, when we dance the night away at the annual Charity Ball.  If we do as well as we have done in the past, we will likely have $500.00 to give to the Salvation Army for their holiday baskets and gift program for children.
     In a world where there is so much need, we are often overwhelmed with just where to begin to make a difference.  My view has always been that you jump in where you live and make whatever difference you can make.  Congratulations to the EKU Honors Program for making these efforts to think about other people in this season of thanksgiving.  May you all experience many special joys this season of giving.

   So we've got the nicest residence hall. The most enjoyable trips. The sweetest scholarships. Elite classmates. A top-notch education.
  What don't we have? Well … an alumni network.
  To fill that void, enter the Bonnie Gray Society, the Honors Program's very own alumni group. The Society formed after groups of alumni met several times throughout 2005 to figure out how to keep Honors alumni involved and influential in the continued success of the program.
   "We started meeting because I had an MBA class that asked me to work on a civic project," said Mark Ramsay ('99), one of the group's founders. "But this would have happened sooner or later. There are too many of us that care about the Honors Program. We want to keep a good thing going."
   The Society debuted at a reunion lunch held on Sept. 24 (EKU's homecoming). Attendees included graduates of the latest Honors class and even one alumni from the very first Honors class. Many professors also came to visit with former students, along with Dr. Gray, who was quite surprised at the name of the group.

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