What does LIGHT stand for, you may ask? Limp Infected Grotesque Homicidal Twinkie? Lint Infused Heartless Greasy Trinket? Loudly Implying Groovy Hippo Treason? Lusting Italian Goat Herbal Tentacle?
Although all of these acronyms would be stellar band names our LIGHT stands for Living Intentionally Growing Healthy Together (fittingly clichéd). There are nine 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 at 8:00 p.m. is called Zen Den! This is typically a 10-minute meditation paired with some tea tasting and conversing. We also fund 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 making thank you cards for teachers. 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: hiking up a high peak followed by a mountain stream skinny dip, watching a movie on our projector, crafting, a foosball tournament, paper snowflake making, and driving to the Birchbark Bookstore, just to name a few. The most popular event last year was “De-stress demolition,” in which you could bring any (not living) thing and smash it with our huge sledgehammer! We purchased an old TV and an enormous stack of plates for this event that were effectively destructed thanks to an overwhelming amount of student stress!
Because our theme is so flexible, we attract many different types of people and personalities. Helen Eifert ’18, racking up the most semesters lived in the house (four), is an avid Ultimate-Frisbee player and rock enthusiast. Lizzy Landry ’18 loves to Nordic ski and hike mountains in Chile. Sam Schwarz ’20 spends his free time drawing and playing foosball on our magnificent table (which seems to have gone missing hmmm). You can hear Rosie Sacco ’20 sing her favorite song (HSWW) from a mile away, and she really enjoys a good book accompanied with a cupcake and hot chocolate. Donovan Spaulding ’18 (Bachelor of the Week, hit him up ladies) 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 some kind of 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. And last but certainly not least, Christian Scott Jones ’20 can make everyone laugh until they cry and look great while doing it.
Swing by 17 College anytime, the LIGHT House welcomes all.