DeThomasis to cook at ‘Recipe for Relief’ fundraiser for SMU faculty, staff flood victims

WINONA, Minn. — Friends of Saint Mary’s University are invited to a ‘Recipe for Relief’ fundraiser Sunday, Oct. 28, at the Winona campus. Proceeds will benefit the many faculty and staff at SMU who received severe flood damage.

Mark your calendars for a fun-filled evening of music, food and festive bidding. The event will be held 6 to 8:30 p.m. in the dining room of the Toner Student Center. Admission will be $25 or $15 for students.

Several celebrity SMU “chefs” will be preparing a huge variety of tasty hors d’oeuvres, and the master chef himself, Brother Louis DeThomasis, Saint Mary’s chancellor, will give out a special recipe — as well as a live (and lively!) demonstration of how to prepare it. Recipes by all the chefs will be shared.

SMU student jazz combos will be joined by directors Eric Heukeshoven and Dr. John Paulson. Additionally Chris Kendall, vice president for student development, will perform folk music. A silent auction will complete the evening.

This SMU benefit follows the Sept. 7 Rockin’ for Relief event — a live concert to assist flood victims in our surrounding communities — which raised $2,889. With a matching $2,500 donation from Modern Woodmen of America, the proceeds totaled $5,389.

Between 300 and 350 people attended that event, sponsored by Saint Mary’s Volunteer Services and Office of Campus Ministry.

SMU hosts High School Challenge competitions for 32 area teams

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota High School Challenge returns for another season of fun competition at 9 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 13, in Saint Mary’s World Room, located in the Hendrickson Center. The 2007-08 season marks the 37th year of the longest running, locally produced television program showcasing Eastern Minnesota, Western Wisconsin, and Northeast Iowa high school students in an educational forum.

High School Challenge is a contest in which high schools compete to correctly answer questions dealing with high school subjects, general information and current events. Thirty-two teams compete in winner and consolation bracket tournaments.

High school students receive scholarships to Saint Mary's for participating in High School Challenge. Schools that win their first game receive $2,000 scholarships to SMU. Schools that lose their first game receive $1,000 scholarships to SMU. Each scholarship is renewable for three consecutive years if requirements are met.

The following schools will compete in Round 1A Oct. 13: Blair-Taylor High School, Onalaska High School, La Crosse Central High School, North Crawford High School, Osseo Fairchild High School and Eau Claire North High School.

The following schools will partake in Round 1B Oct. 13: Bangor High School, Black River Falls High School, De Soto High School, Decorah High School, La Crescent High School, La Crosse Logan High School, Lewiston-Altura High School, Alma Center Lincoln High School, Seneca High School, West Salem High School and Winona Senior High School.

The following schools will participate in Round 1C Nov. 3: La Crosse Aquinas High School, Cotter High School, Caledonia High School, Holmen High School, Sparta High School, Melrose-Mindoro High School, Riceville Community High School, Eau Claire Region High School, Hope Lutheran High School, Eau Claire Memorial High School, Weston High School and Viroqua High School.

Teams that win their afternoon game will return Dec. 1 for the Consolation Championship games. Teams that win their morning and afternoon games will return in February for the Super Challenge Championships. The Consolation Championship and the Super Challenge Championships are taped at SMU and are televised on Fox 25 La Crosse and Fox 48 Eau Claire, beginning in March.

For more information contact Nicole Witt Gerdes, High School Challenge coordinator, at (507) 457-1761 or ngerdes@smumn.edu.

SMU exhibit to examine cultural, social forces through paintings, audio

"Samiha" - encaustic painting by Michal Sagar












"Hinda" - encaustic painting by Michal Sagar

WINONA, Minn. — Minneapolis artists Michal Sagar and Francisca de Beurges Rosenthal will present a thought-provoking and inspiring exhibit titled, “Branches: A Contemporary Convivencia” from Oct. 14 through Nov. 10 at Saint Mary’s University.

The show, which includes encaustic on wood by Sagar and an audio installation by de Beurges Rosenthal, explores a poetic interplay of social and cultural forces between Jews, Muslims and Christians. Specifically, the two focus on where human tensions interact with the natural world, leaving their imprint on each other.

Sagar has created portraits of Jews, Muslims and Christians — from their home countries and from the U.S. — to understand what separates us and what binds us together. Their memorable faces are captured in encaustic paintings on wooden panels. Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax with colored pigments.

De Beurges Rosenthal interviewed some of the people depicted in Sagar’s beautiful, yet haunting, pieces. An audio installation from these interviews accompanies the paintings. One of de Beurges Rosenthal’s earlier sculpture and voice pieces, “Sh’ma” was first seen at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum in 1996. This installation depicted the issues of the Holocaust and the silence produced by trauma. In her ongoing work, de Beurges Rosenthal gives voices to those often encouraged to keep silent.

“Branches” will be on display in the Lillian Davis Hogan Galleries, located in SMU’s Toner Student Center, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

An opening reception is planned for 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, at the galleries.

The exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information, call (507) 457-1652.

TheatreworksUSA to bring favorite children’s story to life Oct. 19

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary’s University Page Series and TheatreworksUSA will stage the comical children’s story, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” on Friday, Oct. 19. “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” – a hilarious musical that follows the terrible day of Alexander will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Page Theatre, located in the SMU Performance Center.

This timeless story begins with Alexander waking up with gum in his hair, and then he trips on a skateboard, and then he accidentally drops his sweater in the sink – and all this before breakfast! Alexander’s day continues to go down hill as he gets smushed in the car on the way to school, his teacher dislikes his drawing of an invisible castle, and Paul doesn’t want to be his friend anymore. There’s no dessert for lunch, there’s lima beans for dinner, and there’s kissing on TV.

Since 1961, TheatreworksUSA — America’s largest not-for-profit theatre for young and family audiences — has entertained more than 78 million people in 49 states and Canada.

Tickets are $6, and are available by calling the SMU Box Office, (507) 457-1715, during regular office hours 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, or online at www.pagetheatre.org.

Make it dinner and a show. Pre-show dinners are provided by Chartwells Catering. Seating begins at 5:15 p.m. in the Toner Student Center, located next to the Performance Center. Adult dinners cost $20 and include chicken, beef, and vegetarian options, along with beverages and dessert. Bottles of wine may be purchased for an extra fee. Children’s dinners cost $12 and include mac-n-cheese or chicken fingers with sides, beverages, and dessert. Orders will be accepted up to three days prior to the event; order online or by phone.

Get set to scream at annual Saint Mary's Walk of Horror

WINONA, Minn. — This year's Saint Mary's University Walk of Horror is again guaranteed to give you goosebumps. New scares are planned around every corner.

The 11th annual hair-raising fundraiser for the SMU Cardinal fastpitch softball team will take place from 7 to 10 p.m. Oct. 19-20 and 26, 27 and 31 in the SMU bluffs. Walkers are asked to meet on the lighted path between the SMU baseball and softball fields, where the haunted walk will begin.

Groups are then escorted through the dark bluffs surrounding the SMU campus for approximately 20 minutes.

The cost is $5 for adults, $4 for students with ID, and $4 for children 12 and younger. Tickets are available at the gate.

SMU head fastpitch softball coach Jen Miller said the event is fun for all ages. The scare level is toned down for younger children and turned up for groups bold enough to face their fears. Last year more than 1,000 brave souls took SMU’s Walk of Horror.

Proceeds from this event will be used for the softball team’s spring trip to California for a tournament.
For more information, contact Miller at (507) 457-6923.

SMU hosts acrobatic dance with “MOMIX Remix” Oct. 10

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary’s University Page Series will host the unpredictable acrobatic dance program “MOMIX Remix” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 10.

“MOMIX” is celebrated for its ability to conjure up a world of surrealistic images using props, light, shadow, humor and the human body.

“MOMIX Remix” is compiled of jaw-dropping routines from the company’s most famous works in the past 25 years. Moses Pendleton, the group’s choreographer and director, will showcase a dance experience like no other at Page Theatre, located in the SMU Performance Center.

Pendleton’s dancers may transform into sidewinders and Gila Monsters, float weightlessly through extraterrestrial terrains, strap into snow skis, or fly through the air like baseballs.

Tickets are $22, $16 for seniors, $14 for students and are available by calling the SMU Box Office, (507) 457-1715, during regular office hours 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, or online at www.pagetheatre.org.

SMU student’s art displayed in Smithsonian, Kennedy Center

SMU senior Holly Schuh’s artwork is on display in Washington, D.C.“Two Voices” is on display the Kennedy Center Hall of States through October.







“Pause,” is on display at the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center through Dec. 31









WINONA, Minn. — Holly Schuh, a Saint Mary’s University senior from Altura, Minn., received the Award of Excellence and $2,000 for her artwork, currently on display at the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center.

The 2007 juried exhibition “Driven” highlights the work of 15 emerging, young visual artists with disabilities. The exhibition, sponsored by VSA arts and Volkswagen of America, Inc., is on display at the S. Dillon Ripley Center, Smithsonian Institution, through Dec. 31. The work of 15 “Driven” awardees is also on display at the Kennedy Center Hall of States through October in celebration of National Disability Employment Awareness Month. The 15 finalists displaying work were chosen from 204 applicants, ranging in age from 16 to 25, from throughout the United States.

This year’s assignment challenged artists to illustrate the motivational force behind their personal vision … what moves them to create art.

Schuh aims to portray the emotions of human struggles through the representation of the human figure. Inspired by a mission trip to India and an intense awareness of humanitarian issues, Schuh links art, humanity and human figures in works that emote without words. Schuh want her figures to “cause discussion about struggles and the changes that are needed in the character of humanity’s actions.”

Schuh said she changed as an artist after she began exhibiting symptoms of hereditary neuropathy with pressure-point palsies, a rare, slowly progressive hereditary neuromuscular disorder that makes an individual very susceptible to nerve injury from pressure, stretch or repetitive use.

“I am determined to see my hands create and to see my disease as a positive inheritance,” she said. “I want my abstract figures to cause discussion about struggles and the changes that are needed in the character of humanity’s actions.”

Trustees approve new Saint Mary’s track/soccer complex

WINONA, Minn. — A plan to build an outdoor track and field/soccer complex was approved Friday by the Saint Mary’s University Board of Trustees.

The athletic facility will be built at the Winona campus, located near the front entrance along Hwy. 14 and Gilmore Valley Road. Construction will begin in summer 2008. The first phase of the project is estimated to cost $2.5 million. A second phase will add permanent viewing stands, concession area, press box and lights.

An on-campus track/soccer complex has been under consideration for several years, according to Chris Kendall, vice president for student development. He said Saint Mary’s is “confident the addition of an attractive, well-constructed facility will greatly benefit the university in a number of key areas, including visibility and marketing, enrollment, athletics and campus atmosphere.” Kendall added, "SMU is one of the few MIAC schools without an outdoor track. This will significantly sharpen our competitive edge and help with the recruitment of student-athletes."

A competition soccer pitch will be built in the center of the track, “making the complex the new home to Cardinal soccer and a training facility for cross country and other athletic programs,” according to Nikki Fennern, athletic director. “It will be a direct asset to six of our teams, as well as to other athletes, intramurals, recreational users and summer camp participants,” Fennern said.

A year ago, the Saint Mary’s Board of Trustees decided not to reinstate football as a varsity sport. Instead, the board directed the university to provide better support for existing athletic programs. A recent peer review of SMU athletics noted that an outdoor track/soccer complex would serve as a major step toward achieving that goal.

This past summer, Saint Mary’s completed the first phase of building new baseball and fastpitch softball fields. Future plans will address needs for athletic training facilities, locker rooms, and tennis courts.

SMU invites public to annual Fall Frolic fun run/walk

WINONA, Minn. — The public is invited to the 20th annual Fall Frolic 5K fun run/walk, to be held during Saint Mary’s University’s Family Weekend, on Saturday, Sept. 29.

Registration will run from 8 to 9:30 a.m. in SMU’s Toner Student Center. The race begins at 10 a.m. The $8 cost includes a T-shirt.

Participants will enjoy the beautiful bluff trails of SMU’s Winona campus and can pre-register by calling (507) 457-1581.

TheatreworksUSA to perform ‘Charlotte’s Web’ Oct. 5 at SMU

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary’s University Page Series will stage the familiar children’s story, “Charlotte’s Web,” on Friday, Oct. 5. “Charlotte’s Web” ¬— which weaves the timeless story of a friendship between a pig and a spider — will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Page Theatre, located in the SMU Performance Center.

Based on E.B. White’s classic book, the story explores a relationship between a pig, Wilbur, and a little gray spider named Charlotte. Charlotte comes up with a brilliant plan to keep Wilbur from becoming someone’s dinner. She spins the words “Some Pig” in her web, which immediately grabs the attention of Wilbur’s owner, Farmer Zuckerman. Wilbur is then regarded as a prize pig, and is ensured a home on the farm forever. The story features numerous animals, and explores the true meaning of selfless friendship.

Since 1961, TheatreworksUSA — America’s largest not-for-profit theatre for young and family audiences — has entertained more than 78 million people in 49 states and Canada.

Tickets are $6, and are available by calling the SMU Box Office, (507) 457-1715, during regular office hours 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, or online at www.pagetheatre.org.