Holy Cross Welcomes Students Back And Celebrates a Year of Birthdays With "Mad Hatter's Tea Party"

WORCESTER, Mass. – Featuring an enormous cake, Holy Cross Dining will hold its 10th annual dinner event to celebrate the birthday and "unbirthday" of each student in Kimball Dining Hall on Jan. 27 from 5 to 7:30 p.m.

Titled "Mad Hatter’s Tea Party," the dining hall will be transformed into a whimsical forest-like atmosphere as portrayed in Lewis Carroll’s book "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland." The main event will feature the cake, spanning 36 feet in length and approximately 4 feet in height, assembled to look like the hat the Mad Hatter wore. The characters of the story will be featured onto the cake in edible form. The cake cutting ceremony will begin at 6 p.m. by a special guest to remain secret until the party.

Although the event is centered on celebrating birthdays, it is also an opportunity to welcome students back from winter break and celebrate the beginning of a new year, according to Margaret Rollo, assistant general manager of Kimball Dining Hall.

As part of the décor, there will be a guest table in the forest, where each place setting will include the name of six Holy Cross students (Noah McPike ’05, Katherine Healy ’07, Nicholas Mormando ’07, Erica McKeever ’08, Parnell Ormiston ’08 and Christopher Wilterdink ’08) all of whom will celebrate their birthdays on Jan. 27. All other attendees will celebrate the day as their "unbirthday."

The construction of the cake, which is also open to photographers, will begin at 10 a.m. in the Kimball Sweet Shoppe. The theme was conceived by Walter Niemi, Kimball Sweet Shoppe supervisor.

NOTE TO PHOTOGRAPHERS: Please call Nikolas Markantonatos at 508-793-2419 to make arrangements to attend this event.