Trinity Kicks Off Sesquicentennial Celebration with Community Service and Big Party

The Wild Bunch Band, featuring Asst. Professor of Scenic Design
Scott Neale on harmonica, plays for festival guest. (Photos by Jackson Beach)

By Jackson Beach

Carnival rides, corn dogs and a capybara greeted guests of the TU150 Kickoff party on Friday evening. The party celebrated the official beginning of the year-long commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Trinity University, founded in 1869.

Despite cloudy skies, hundreds of Trinity students, staff, faculty, and alumni gathered to enjoy festivities on a campus transformed into an amusement park.

The lawn near the Storch Memorial Building served as a petting zoo with critters of various shapes and sizes, including a llama and a porcupine. Tents serving agua fresca and an assortment of skewered treats dotted the grounds near the Miller Fountain.

Even the parking lot between the Parker Chapel and Marrs McClean Hall hosted carnival rides such as a rotating crane and a swinging pendulum, games such as balloon darts, and a photo booth.

In addition to these major attractions, smaller touches like string lights and balloons added excitement. As did live music from The Wild Bunch Band, featuring Scott Neale, Trinity professor of Scenic Design, on harmonica.

The kickoff event featured two special speakers: Trinity University President Danny J. Anderson and San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg. In his speech, Anderson underscored Trinity’s commitment to service. “Each year we have about 1,600 Trinity students who typically donate about 120,000 hours of service,” he said.

Right before the kickoff party, dozens of Trinity students, faculty, staff and alumni spent an afternoon providing community services around San Antonio, including at the food bank.

Wearing a maroon polo, Nirenberg, an alum of class of 1999, thanked students and faculty for giving back to the city of San Antonio. “You know that on behalf of our entire community we are grateful for the service of all the students and alums and staff and faculty who are out there doing the work,” he said. Nirenberg noted San Antonio as a “city on the rise” and credited Trinity for contributing to that momentum.

Michelle Bartonico, Trinity's assistant vice president for Strategic Communications and Marketing, noted in an email response that Friday's kickoff “was a solid eight months of planning from the 150th steering committee (of which I’m a member) and the subcommittees for individual initiatives.”

Bartonico hailed the event a success, praising the collaborative efforts of various departments including student involvement, the president’s office, and facilities services.

“I hope we celebrate service,” Bartonico said in the email. “I hope we come together today to honor how far we’ve come and what makes Trinity unique.”

Olivia Roybal, a senior political science major, echoed Bartonico’s sentiments. “Trinity is a really special environment,” she said. “You can affect change locally here. It’s really important for people who go to Trinity, or work at Trinity, or who’ve graduated from Trinity, to take that practice and apply it once they leave.”

More information on Trinity’s 150th anniversary can be found here.