This weekend Biola University pulled off two of its biggest centennial events, the Birthday Bash and the Centennial Legacy Gala, culminating a yearlong celebration in recognition of Biola’s 100th anniversary.
According to Marcy Guevara, assistant to the centennial director, 600 Biola supporters, donors, and constituents attended the Gala, and a crowd of 1,500 went to the Birthday Bash. Guevara said that these were both great turnouts and the Centennial team has been “totally thrilled” at the reception of these activities.
Plates were $150 a head for the Centennial Legacy Gala held at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel “just blocks from Biola’s founding birthplace in Downtown Los Angeles,” according to the centennial website. The speakers at the gala included Biola alumnus and South Dakota senator John Thune as well as Biola president Barry Corey. The event also included the unveiling of a Legacy exhibit and renowned opera singer Katie VanKooten.
The gala was only one of the many festivities honoring Biola this year—honor that is well deserved in Marcy Guevara’s opinion, who performs her organizational role with great enthusiasm.
Guevara brought up the book of Nehemiah and its discussion of the value of celebration. She said that this too is a time for celebrating God’s continuous faithfulness to the Biola community for the past 100 years. She pointed out, however, that it is more than celebration.
“This is all worship. This is all to bring glory to the Lord for what he has done for Biola.”
Guevara—an ’06 grad—is one of four centennial staff members hired by Biola to take charge of this year of festivities. They have worked with other groups on campus such as faculty, AS, and Spiritual Life, to put on and advertise the events that are a part of the Centennial Celebration.
This cooperation was evident in the preparation for Sunday’s Switchfoot concert; AS helped the Centennial Staff organize the occasion by subsidizing the tickets with money from the budget, and helped with promoting the event and selling tickets.
These efforts have not been wasted on Deanna Williams, a freshman psychology major who went to the Birthday Bash with her younger brother.
“I thought it was amazing…people had great stage presence,” she said of the evening’s entertainment, which included Switchfoot, The Myriad, and Tyrone Wells.
Tyrone Wells, an artist she hadn’t heard of before the concert, especially struck her.
“ I love him! I’m his new biggest fan,” she said, adding that she was planning on downloading his new CD.
