The Iona community showed how much they had to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season as students gave back in two big ways before leaving for break.

The first was by showing their support for the community in the New Rochelle Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Iona College Pipe Band was featured as Iona marched with participants from high schools in the area, dance schools, local businesses and city departments and services. The parade participants also included a roller skating turkey to promote a local roller derby team, a dancing hot dog to promote Sabrett and Green Team cabs.

This is Iona’s second year participating in the New Rochelle parade. The award-winning Pipe Band graciously appeared in the parade, despite their annual concert taking place just the night before. Senior piper Flo Maroney, however, didn’t seem to have a problem with it, because she sees the value in participating in such events.

“It is vital to harness good relations with community, so that we can support them just as much as they support us,” said Maroney on their participation.

Along with the Pipe Band, many faculty members marched in the parade. Junior Bryana Brady supported Iona as a student marcher, and alumni John Kavanaugh, class of 2010, marched with the group as well.

Iona’s Director of Public Relations Dawn Insanalli is responsible for reaching out to the college community to spark involvement in the parade.

She said, “It is important for the Iona community to be involved in the New Rochelle community such as the New Rochelle Thanksgiving Day Parade because it is an opportunity to demonstrate Iona College pride and support community traditions. Iona is extremely proud of our students and welcome these occasions where we can all be a part of community events and share the joy of the holiday season.”

Along with this method of giving back, Iona students also took part in creating Thanksgiving baskets for families in need. This effort, headed by campus ministries, involved the student organizations, athletic teams, academic departments and offices on campus. Each group, especially the student organizations, worked tirelessly to collect food and donations from their members in order to create and decorate a laundry basket full of all of the supplies necessary to cook a Thanksgiving meal for their assigned family. Campus Ministries was responsible for supplying over 110 families with baskets this year.

After all of their hard work, the baskets were brought to the Mulcahy gym on Monday, Nov. 21. A brief prayer ceremony was held, and they were then blessed and loaded into vans to be delivered. Overall, the event had a great turnout and the organizations’ hard work, generosity and pride was incredibly evident. This was just another way that Iona students were able to give back to the community, and the students clearly took full advantage of it.

This Thanksgiving, Iona has truly made their mark on the New Rochelle community and has given back copiously. The generosity that both the students and the faculty and staff show to the community is an obvious display of the school’s appreciation to the community, as well as a display of how we call New Rochelle home. As sophomore Ryan Murrin said, “It’s a great day to be a Gael in New Rochelle.”