HEY! What does LIGHT stand for? Loners Inside Grassy Holes Tightly? Lingering In Grand Helium Tranquility? Loafs’ Insight Going Hectically Tragic? Lint In Gross Honey Tramps?
Although all of these acronyms would be stellar band names, our LIGHT stands for Living Intentionally Growing Healthy Together. There are 9 framily members of our humble abode at 17 College Street.
If you snoop around our Facebook page (throw us a like and/or follow us on Instagram @slu_light_house), you’ll find our mission statement: “We strive to promote a healthy lifestyle for individuals and the community in both local and global arenas centered around the ideas of balance and awareness of self. We will provide information and activities that promote self-awareness for St. Lawrence students and the Canton community. In doing so, this will hopefully raise awareness of our lifestyle choices and their impact on the environment and health of our peers.”
This description may be a bit ambiguous to those who are not familiar with the LIGHT House’s standard shenanigans. Well, an event we host every week on Wednesday nights @8 PM is called Zen Den! This is typically a ten-minute meditation paired with some tea tasting and conversing. We also fund the SLU Club Yoga on campus, so if you ever are inspired to become a yogi, come to a yoga session!
The members of our house each lead several workshops a semester, which can range from Deep Fry Friday (deep-frying anything imaginable) to watching Elf on our projector and eating Christmas cookies. The week before/of finals we host a few events under our advertisement of “De-stress week” to help our peers take a moment or an afternoon free of the pressures of deadlines and essays.
These workshops also consisted of a variety of activities: hike up a high peak followed by a mountain stream skinny dip, writing thank you notes to teachers, crafting, a foosball tournament, candle making, driving to the Birchbark Bookstore, just to name a few.
A popular event last year was “De-stress demolition” in which you could bring any (not living) thing and smash it with golf clubs and such destructive items! We purchased an old TV and an enormous stack of plates for this event that were effectively destructed thanks to an overwhelming amount student stress!
Because our theme is so flexible, we attract many different types of people and personalities. Sam Schwarz ’20 spends his free time creating music and playing foosball on our magnificent table. You can hear Rosie Sacco ’20 sing her favorite song (1 2 step by Ciara) from a mile away, and she really enjoys a good book accompanied with a cupcake and hot chocolate. Donovan Spaulding is an impressive, yet humble rock climber who is single and looking for someone to take ice climbing this upcoming Valentine’s day.
Shannon Wolpiuk ’19 can be found in the WORD Studio or scaling a mountain somewhere in the Adirondacks. Holly Bendel ’20 enjoys painting and learning 12 different languages at the same time. Annika Witt ’19 loves a rockin’ concert and taking awesome pictures of anything from canoes to portraits.
Ella Neilsen ’19 likes to scream random words and is constantly throwing up an aggressive peace sign. Chloe Hayward ’20 loves a good vine compilation while indulging in dark chocolate hummus. And last but certainly not least, Jesse Lowell ’19 is a die hard skier who’s in the stereotypical pursuit of a man bun.
Swing by 17 College anytime, the LIGHT House welcomes all.