Sept. 2, 2010
CUA President John Garvey celebrated his first University Picnic this afternoon with an estimated 1,000 students and hundreds of faculty members and staff on the CUA Mall. "Sweet," Garvey said of the festivities, which represented the fifth year that CUA has held a picnic for the opening of the academic year.
After delivering his closing remarks at the Mass of the Holy Spirit, which preceded the picnic, Garvey greeted those who had emerged from the doors of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. He smiled, shook hands, chatted, and thanked people for coming.At the picnic, alumnus Robert P. Malesky sold copies of his new pictorial history of CUA, The Catholic University of America .
Looking out at the 80-yard white canopy where picnickers were to eat, Garvey advised those around him under a broiling September sun: "Stay out of the heat."
Also greeting the revelers was Pamela Tremblay, 21, a theology and religious studies major from Granby, Mass. "It's great that there is an emphasis on community and the breaking of the bread at Mass. It shows a real coming together," said Tremblay, a member of the President's Society.
While Tremblay chatted up picknickers in the sun, others sat at tables and chairs to eat lunch. On the menu were Polish dogs, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, turkey burgers, potato salad, Pepsi, water, soft raisin and chocolate chip cookies, and bags of chips. Journey's "Don't Stop Believin" and more contemporary as well as older hits blared from speakers nearby.
"Isn't this great?" Garvey asked.