MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia University is ready to welcome back a popular, on-campus holiday tradition with the help of Mountain State businesses.
Northeast Natural Energy and Huntington Bank will team with WVU to host the Woodburn Hall Lighting Ceremony on Tuesday, December 2, starting at 6 p.m. at Woodburn Circle right in the heart of the downtown campus. Northeast Natural Energy President and CEO Mike John will be in attendance along with employees that work in operations from around the Morgantown area as well as representatives with Huntington Bank and WVU President Michael T. Benson.
“We have a lot of projects that we’ve worked with WVU on over the years, and we’ve done a number of research projects, particularly in the Morgantown Industrial Park,” said John on what prompted his company to be a part of the ceremony. “So as this project took legs, we were approached, and we jumped on the opportunity to be a part of it.”
To start the ceremony, Benson will be joined by 9-year-old Kinsey Wolfe, a WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s patient from Tunnelton, along with her parents and three siblings, alongside John and other representatives with Northeast Natural Energy as well as Huntington Bank. This will be the first time that Woodburn Hall will have holiday lights since 2011, when the switch was made to a winter-themed light that would be shown until the start of the new year.
“This iconic lighting of Woodburn Hall is a wonderful opportunity for our company to step forward and bring attention to that, what I think is transformational activity for the natural gas industry in northern West Virginia,” said John.
For the WVU students, faculty, staff, alumni, and members of the community that will be in attendance, representatives with Huntington and Northeast Natural Energy will be on hand to offer holiday snacks as part of the ceremony. With the anticipation that it will be cold on December 2, hot cocoa and cookies will be served before and after the ceremony, all free of charge to those who attend. For John, whose company works with WVU on projects within the Morgantown Industrial Park and is also part of the WVU Class of 1981, the ceremony is a perfect opportunity to give back to the WVU community.
“For the people that work for Northeast Natural Energy, we’ll have a good crowd of our folks there,” said John on MetroNews Midday. “We are part of the community in Morgantown, and so we’re enjoying this as much as anyone when it comes to the actual lighting of Woodburn Hall.”
Free event parking will be available beginning at 5 p.m. in nearby university lots.
The return of the lighting of Woodburn Hall during the holidays brings back a tradition that was regularly hosted by WVU for close to 50 years by the time the decision was made to switch the lighting back in 2011. For John, the ceremony is considered more personal than expected, with memories of the lighting taking place in the late 1970s being a sticking point for him throughout the several-week process in order for the lights to get arranged before December. With the WVU community at large expected to be in attendance, WVU officials as well as representatives from both Northeast Natural Energy and Huntington Bank are ready to welcome back a long-standing tradition.
“For particularly those of us that have been associated with the state and associated with the university for a number of years, it just rekindles our excitement about being part of such an important part of our state, that is, West Virginia University,” said John.