Fourscore and three years ago, I brought forth on this campus, a new “Rant of the Week” for The Comenian, conceived in disappointment, and dedicated to the proposition that Heritage Day can be better.
That rant was my very first article for The Comenian, and it covered my disappointment with my first Heritage Day back in 2021 (I’m not old, you are). Flash forward three years, six semesters, and (literally) hundreds of articles later, I have now experienced my final Heritage Day as a Moravian undergrad student.
Without dragging this on longer than the opening ceremonies of years past, Heritage Day 2024 was the best I have experienced by far.
Since freshman year, I was a pretty adamant Heritage Day critic who was pretty disillusioned with the event and tradition. This year was different: Heritage Day was amazing.
I don’t exaggerate when I say that this year’s Heritage Day is a notable improvement in nearly every conceivable way. The radical shifts in the structure of the day showed just how much the school took feedback from students seriously.
In addition to that original rant, I wrote an opinion piece last fall all about how to further engage students for Heritage Day, and after re-reading that article, I was shocked to see that nearly every single piece of critique was taken into account.
This year, Heritage Day started ever so slightly later in the morning, to give us sleep-deprived overachievers an extra hour of sleep. Last year (at least if you didn’t want to be miserable), events started at 8 a.m., but this year, it didn’t kick off until 9 am. While I had to be there early at 8:30 because I was a site captain, it was still nice to get that extra half hour of sleep (I totally wasn’t up until 4 am the night before).
Additionally, the morning program was substantially downsized. From an outsider’s perspective, this may seem like a red flag, but trust me; this is quite literally the best change they could have possibly made. The morning program always felt overly long and drawn out. Having it truncated gave everyone more time to actually engage in community service.
My biggest problem with Heritage Day in years past was that we simply didn’t get enough time for service. This year, however, we had more time for our service assignments, which made the day all the more enjoyable and fulfilling.
The morning program always emphasized how important service and giving back were to Moravian’s mission, and I think this change to have a longer period of time for service massively helps us to live up to those mission statements.
It also was so nice to be on Makuvek Field in the morning. Not only was it beautiful out, but starting the day of service outside just felt more fitting than being in a cushy, air-conditioned environment.
Another issue of past years was the fact that we always got our t-shirts and took the photo after all of the service projects. It always felt weird that we didn’t get to actually wear the Heritage Day shirts on Heritage Day and that they were always long-sleeved when the day itself is usually in fairly warm weather.
Taking the photo was always dreadful as it would take an eternity to wait for all the busses to arrive, and by 1 pm it was always blisteringly hot, especially if you were one of the poor souls who decided to put on the long-sleeved Heritage Day shirts. Getting our shirts and taking the picture in the morning not only prevented me from getting a heat stroke, but also streamlined the whole day.
In my article last year, I asked for the MAC Block Party to take place directly after Heritage Day, so that it would allow us to come together to celebrate our service as the Moravian community. Lo and behold, we got the MAC x USG Block Party directly after Heritage Day.
I’m not saying that I’m responsible, but I would also like to preliminarily stroke my ego and say it was me. In the words of a very wise kung fu master, there are no coincidences.
Seriously though, the Block Party was awesome, and having that celebration following the service projects just made the day around service and community all the more exciting and fulfilling.
I never thought I would say this, but this year’s Heritage Day healed my jaded heart. This was everything Heritage Day was meant to be. This event showed the best that Moravian has to offer and served as yet another reminder of why this school and community are so great in the first place.
So, thank you to Kristina Scesa, Madison Van Duzer, the entire Center For Career and Civic Engagement Office, and everyone else who worked so hard to make this event happen. You all knocked it out of the park and showed the wider Lehigh Valley why we take pride in Moravian.
