By Jarrod McCowin
GUEST WRITER
Calvin’s annual dinner for scholarship recipients and donors may soon outgrow the largest banquet hall in the Grand Rapid’s area.
Over 600 guests, including 300 students, registered for this year’s dinner, held Tuesday night at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel.
Donors and recipients listened to devotions lead by Neil Plantinga, Dean of the Chapel. After dinner, they enjoyed four musical selections performed by baritone Mark Moliterno, Associate Professor of Music, and his wife, soprano Leena Molinterno.
The event ended with testimonies from two student recipients. Sarah Maxwell talked about her four years at Calvin, and how scholarship donors contribute to the “compassion” and “shalom” of the Calvin community. Pellagia Muliba told the guests that her scholarship is part of God’s providence that brought her “all the way from a corn field in Zimbabwe to Calvin College.”
Robert Berkhof, Vice President for Development, explained that the purpose of the dinner is to bring scholarship donors and recipients together. “It gives donors a chance to see what kind of students are benefiting from their gifts,” he said, “and recipients a chance to give thanks in person.”
He also admits that the event is “geographically oriented,” since many donors can not travel to Grand Rapids for a single evening. “We send invitations to every donor across the country , but mostly only the donors in western Michigan can attend.”
“One year we had a donor from California plan a vacation around the dinner,” said Berkhof, “and he was quite glad that he came.”
Sophomore Mark Bogertman was eager to attend his second scholarship dinner. “This was my favorite meal of the year last year,” he said. “I’ve been waiting all semester to have dinner at the Amway Grand again.”
The event moved off-campus only six years ago. “The first dinner was approximately fifteen years ago, and consisted of less than fifty people in the Commons Lecture Hall,” said Berkhof. “When we outgrew the lecture hall, we moved to the Commons dining room.”
Since it outgrew the Commons, Calvin has held the dinner in the area’s largest banquet hall, the Amway Grand’s Ambassador Ballroom. Calvin registered 615 for the dinner Tuesday night in the 600-person capacity ballroom.
“We add 25 to 30 named scholarships each year,” Berkhof said. “So pretty soon, even the Amway Grand won’t hold us.”
The Winifred Holkeboer Memorial Scholarship is one of this year’s 28 new scholarships. Mr. Eldon and Mrs. Cecilia Mereness, and Dr. Robert and Mrs. Paola Holkeboer donated the scholarship to the English department. “We decided to put [our inheritance] to good use,” said Mr. Mereness.
As long as Calvin adds new donors, the dinner will continue to outgrow banquet halls. As for where he could move the event next, Berkhof joked, “I don’t know – maybe the Van Andel Arena.”
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