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This past Wednesday, April 25th, was this year’s Celebration Chapel. A well-loved part of this chapel is the Golden Acorn Awards. These are awards that go out to memorable people on campus that are iconic for many somewhat random things.
This year was no exception. One of the awards given was the “Most Likely to Rename a Dorm.” This award went to junior elementary education major Hannah Dahl, who took letters from the sign of Lambert Hall to make it spell, at certain points, “Bert” or “Lamb,” for example.
“I was also surprised because, originally, I had gotten talked to by my RD about taking the letters,” she said. She concluded by saying, “I guess it boils down to the fact that I had sticky fingers and eventually other people found that funny!” Another award was the “Commuter Who Spends More Time on Campus Than at Home.” This award went to sophomore vocal performance major Bethany Mullet. Mullet spends so much time at Bethel because, in her words, “I’m really involved in a lot of different things…Also, I just love spending time here with people, and I don’t want to miss out on what’s going on around campus.” She concluded by saying, “This Golden Acorn award is the crowning achievement of my life so far. I am truly humbled to be considered for such a high honor.” The “Most Ridiculous Use of the Tuckey Facebook Page” award went to sophomore sociology major Cameron Regalado. She talked about the motivation behind her award-winning Facebook posts. “I don't have a car on campus, so I don't have the luxury of just running to the store,” she said. “I post with lots of begging so people won't just look past my post. Also, sometimes it's just funny to see people's reactions to certain questions or things so I'll post just for that.” She concluded about receiving the award, “It was embarrassing walking up on stage because the stage is a scary place, but hey I got a WHOLE bottle of ketchup out of it, so it was definitely worth it.” The “Bethel’s Second-Most Beloved Duo” award went to junior exercise science major Evan Herr-Knispel and junior ministry major John Lade. This duo said that they went to the same high school, though they didn’t meet then, but then found out they were both going to Bethel and decided to room together. “We've been roommates since freshmen year here at Bethel,” said Herr-Knispel. He continued, saying, “We've become so tight. We help each other, we pray for each other. It's awesome…John's helped me so much, definitely. He's the major reason I'm here today.” “There [are] some things that Evan does that I don't do as well and seeing him do that is helpful for me,” said Lade. “He is a major support system for me. We have our own sense of humor too. It's great!” They went on to talk about all the inside jokes they have between them that most people wouldn’t understand. They concluded by saying that it was a blessing to win the award. Other awards given out were: “Oakwood’s Best Hugger” (to Ian Smith), “Out of Toilet Paper” (to Tahya Bruce, Becca Schemerhorn, Kam Glenn, and Macie Hinen), “Shortest Award” (to Seth Kissinger), “Modern-Day Grandma Shupe” (to Bri Barnett), and “Best Worst Acorn Sub Maker” (to Sammy Andrews). The final award was a more serious and touching one, the “Heart of Gold Service Award.” This award went to junior elementary education major Jesse Sistrunk, or “Ultimate Jesse.” Sistrunk had some expectations coming into the Golden Acorns, based on his RD telling him to make sure he was at chapel that day. “I kind of expected that if I'm going to win an award, it's going to be something like the award I won last year, which was ‘Giving 150%, 100% of the time,’” he said. “In my mind, I was thinking, oh yeah, it's going to be my awesomeness and my high energy and I'm just going to go up there, do a roll, do a cartwheel into a butterfly kick…But then, they showed the video of me being a servant. This wave of humility just struck me… it was when I was humble, when i was being a servant, was what they called me up there for, not my macho facade that I put on…” He concluded by saying, “This is who I am; I care about people. The love I felt going up on stage was really overpowering. It almost brought a tear to my eye.” (Photo by Caleb Lucas on Unsplash)
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