Six to be honored by Syracuse University’s Students Offering Service with 2003 Spirit of Lanterns Awards

Six to be honored by Syracuse University’s Students Offering Service with 2003 Spirit of Lanterns AwardsMarch 24, 2003Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Six individuals whose commitment to service and issues of social justice have inspired Syracuse University students and encouraged them to reflect on the meaning of service in their own lives will be honored with the “Spirit of Lanterns” Awards by Hendricks Chapel’s Students Offering Service on March 28. The presentation will begin at 7 p.m. in the Noble Room of Hendricks Chapel.

This year’s honorees include:

• The late Rev. Nick Cardell, minister emeritus at May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society in Syracuse and a social justice advocate. Cardell died in October 2002.
• Social justice advocates Doris and Dan Sage. Dan Sage is a professor emeritus in SU’s School of Education.
• Social justice advocates Ann Tiffany and Ed Kinane. Kinane is currently in Iraq as part of a peace mission.
• The Rev. Joseph Champlin, rector of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Syracuse. Father Champlin is the founder of the Guardian Angel Society, an organization formed to support the Cathedral School. The inner-city school serves some of Syracuse’s most marginalized children.

In keeping with the tradition of the Spirit of Lanterns Awards, a portrait of each honoree was created by illustrator Seth Hiler ’02. Cardell, the Sages, Tiffany and Kinane all appear in one portrait; Father Champlin is pictured in the Cathedral in Hiler’s second portrait. Narratives for the portraits have been written by Julie Kratz, a writer from Camden, Maine; Rachael Gazdick, assistant director of SOS; and Jessa Buchalter, a junior in The College of Arts and Sciences.

When linked together, the portraits and the narratives are meant to tell the story of each individual and his or her work. The exhibit will be displayed in Hendricks Chapel and will travel throughout the Central New York community.

The Spirit of Lanterns Awards were established in celebration of the 10th anniversary of S.O.S. in 2000. The award is based on the ideals written about in “Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors,” a book by Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman.

“We were determined that the 10th year of S.O.S. should be marked by acknowledging people in the greater community who offer a template for citizenship, service and social activism that moves us towards greater justice,” says Francis McMillian Parks, director of S.O.S. and of African American Programs at Hendricks Chapel. “We asked students to think of people they admire and who they might strive to emulate in their time at the University and in the years to come.”

Parks says that the March 28 celebration will not only include this year’s honorees, but past honorees as well.

“Over the years we have seen a growing collection of portraits and narratives: Men and women who have offered the community themselves, their persuasiveness and their passion for justice,” Parks says. “Every one of them has been committed to the community. We are privileged to know and to honor these people.”

Hendricks Chapel is a diverse religious, spiritual, and cultural learning environment seeking to generate a welcoming and caring community within Syracuse University. The Chapel supports the University’s core values by creatively promoting interfaith understanding and cooperation through program and example.