Green set to become a winter wonderland

From Christmas carolers to chestnuts roasting on open fires to altruistic gift-giving, the administration will try to bring some joy to its little corner of the world today. For the second consecutive year, the University is sponsoring a College Green winter festival, which will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m, filled with holiday food, folks and fun. Workers have been scurrying like elves since Wednesday to transform Blanche Levy Park into a winter wonderland, complete with Ben's Enchanted Village, a crafts fair, and the "Dancing Waters" fountain, which spurts multicolored bursts of water in rhythm with holiday music. The Winter Holiday Festival will also include free holiday cookies, danishes, hot chocolate, hot cider and roasted chestnuts, according to Physical Plant Facilities Manager Patricia Pancoast, who executed the administration's plans for the event. To please the ears as well as the palate, Pancoast said, the Festival will feature several performers, including the Philadelphia Boys Choir singing Christmas carols, a brass band, and the Royal Pickwickian Actors, who will perform scenes from Charles Dickens' works. The festival will also emphasize a holiday gift drive, which asks participants to bring a small gift that the University will then distribute among local homeless shelters. Now in its second year, the festival was the brainchild of President Sheldon Hackney and Senior Vice President Marna Whittington, Pancoast said. She added that last year's festival was a "great success," and many enthusiastic phone calls and letters to the president's office inspired a repeat performance. Pancoast said she expects at least 10,000 people to wander through the festival, which is open to all students, faculty, staff and members of the West Philadelphia community. Unfortunately for the revelers, weather reports indicate that one staple of the holiday season will be sorely lacking today. "It would be nice if it snowed," Pancoast said.

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