After many years, the Canton Community Outreach (CCO) Thelmo Committee has revived the St. Lawrence Bar Tour. It provides free transportation to local bars to students who are of drinking age. Each location on the tour caters free food for the participants.
For a university as small as St. Lawrence, it seems traditions play a large role in student happiness. In order to keep students happy and attracted to SLU, traditions that have received enormous amounts of support like the Bar Tour need to be revived. It is the events that students put on at SLU that make it such a desirable school to attend.
The Bar Tour has been put on by Thelmo every year since the early 2000s but ended in 2012 after a member of the CCO Committee failed to host it. After six years, former Committee Chair of the Canton Community Outreach Program, Placido Ramallo, was able to catch wind of the earlier tradition from old Thelmo binders and brought the idea back to life. The resurrection of the Bar Tour received immense support from the Thelmo Senate and senior students.
“I have never heard anything negative in response to putting the bar tour back together, seniors especially have been saying that they want to do more activities together in their final year at SLU,” said Ramallo.
The Bar Tour was brought back to unite students and let seniors have a relaxing night without having to worry about transportation. “I think it is a great way to meet new people or to catch up with friends,” said Mike Smith, a bar tour participant.
The bar tour allowed students to enjoy parts of Canton that they may not have enjoyed before. “I think it is a good thing for the students to come downtown. I like that students were able to come and experience Canton,” said Sylvia, owner of Sylvia’s Restaurant in downtown Canton.
Gino Montanaro, Catering Sale Manager of the Canton University Inn, stated that he was happy to welcome the SLU community to the University Inn again for the Bar Tour.
For the future, students hope that Thelmo is able to keep this tradition alive. “I really think that it will become a staple event in years to come and it goes without saying that the CCO Committee Chair will be in charge of keeping this going,” said Ramallo.
“I really hope they continue it because every underclassman should be able to experience the Bar Tour when they turn 21,” said Smith.
The plan for the future is to put on the Bar Tour every semester with bar stops at Pub 56, University Inn, Sylvia’s Restaurant and The Hoot Owl. The Pub Tour tradition is now in the hands of the leader of the Canton Community Outreach Committee.