Senior Michael Canterbury and alumni Corey Rhoades and Ryan Brown invested time, money and resources to purchase an inflatable reindeer during their freshman year to go with the Christmas decorations for the front lawn. During the fall of 2012, Canterbury, Rhoades and Brown were talking about the Harding lights at an open dorm night and thought it would be a funny idea to add their personal flair to the Christmas lights. "We were talking about the Harding front lawn lights, and then we started joking about putting an inflatable reindeer on the front lawn to go along with the lights," Canterbury said. "Then we realized this would actually be possible to do, so we got up and started knocking on every door in Stephens Hall, asking people if they would want to donate to the Front Lawn Reindeer Fund." The men started asking friends, the peers in their classes, people in the cafeteria and their chapel buddies for donations. They continued to raise the funds for several weeks leading up to the annual lighting ceremony. "We asked around for about a week or two for $1 donations," Brown said. "We ended up raising over $120. I would write eve1yone's name in a note I> .\ I LY LI FE ·~ 7 on my phone to have a list of every person that donated to the fund. Ninety-one people donated to it. We probably asked over 200 people. Alot of people just rolled their eyes, but as long as people thought it was legit and we weren't just trying to take their money to keep it, it was fairly simple to get people excited and full of Christmas spirit." After a few weeks of fundraising, they were able to pay for the inflatable reindeer in small bills and change and revealed the reindeer during the annual lighting ceremony. ''We ended up getting it in time for the turning on ofthe front lawn lights," Canterbury said. "Then I came up with the name, Bethel, and the reindeer is a girl. That night, we blew her up, and it was a huge success. We would put it up every night on the front lawn, and as the weeks passed, Bethel became more famous. I've been putting her on the front lawn for three years now." According to Brown, someone cut a hole in Bethel's hoof, making the reindeer unable to inflate and preventing their plan of passing down the lawn decoration. "The plan was to pass her on to a new generation," Brown said. "Michael is hoping to repair her, but it might be too late."
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