255 Grapevine: cans for a cause

This October the Gordon College community will have the chance to fight hunger without setting foot off campus. The show, 255 Grapevine, an “event with an address and a certain zip”, will take place on Saturday, October 10 at 7:30 pm in the A.J. Gordon Memorial Chapel. The admission fee? Pay what you can or give a can—of food.

The theme of 255 Grapevine is home. Since August students, professors, alumni, and CET have been planning the show.

“In some way Gordon has been, is, or will be home to everyone in the audience,” says Norman Jones, associate professor of theater arts and director of the show.

Natalie Ferjulian, a senior communication arts major from Hudson, MA who is working to organize the can drive, says, “It’s a great opportunity for students, faculty, alumni, and perspective students to come together for an evening of fun and do good for the community. If the place packs out we could have upwards of 1,500 cans.”

Each can of food that is collected will be donated locally—either to the Gloucester Open Door Food Pantry or to the Accord Food Pantry in Hamilton.

Acts at 255 Grapevine include Gordon’s faculty, staff, students, and alumni who will be singing country songs, playing two grand pianos, dancing stomp, and much more. One act will feature Steve Hunt, Professor of Biblical Studies, singing with his group, “Hunt and the Homeboys.”

“The show will feature faculty members on different instruments,” says Mark Stevick, professor of English. “If you have had Hunt you have got to see him take a risk like this. I’m glad it’s not me. And that’s only the middle of the show—it only goes up from there!”

While Jones is pleased about how the individual acts are coming together he is excited about something more.

“I am particularly excited about making the purposes of the evening come alive; a greater sense of I belong to this place,” says Jones. “This is an event that will showcase talents but deliberately create an environment where everyone feels welcome. [The audience] will want to say happily and with conviction ‘Hurray for Gordon!’”

It is important to remember that the evening also goes beyond entertainment. Jones says that food pantries are hurting and this is a tangible way for the Gordon community to reach out and support a good cause.

Stevick says, “Everything that comprises the evening is going to be enjoyable. Some acts will be surprising. You don’t want to miss this—it’s going to blow the roof off.”