Town Meet Gown

BY LIESEL CROSIER

Mary Baldwin has always shared a special connection with Staunton, but recent efforts to boost community relations have resulted in even stronger connections that benefit both the university community and the local scene.

On an intensely humid July 4, about 50 members of the MBU family gather in Staunton’s Gypsy Hill Park for the Happy Birthday America parade, marking the first Mary Baldwin presence in recent memory for the beloved local event.

Dressed in matching gold #MBUfamily T-shirts, alumni, students, faculty, and staff and their families — including President Pamela Fox and several members of her executive team — carry signs touting fast facts about the university and distribute to a crowd of thousands candy, fistfuls of small American flags, and a few of those gold shirts.

“I want one!” one local teenager shouts among her friends gathered on the parade route.

“Go Fighting Squirrels!” another parade watcher calls out, as a group of graduate students march by, holding the official parade banner emblazoned with the university’s new spirit mark.

Donté Montague ’15, a graduate of MBU Online and teacher for Staunton City Schools, is among the most recognizable members of the Mary Baldwin contingent. “We had the opportunity to promote our university to the community in a very positive way,” he reflected. “I was cheered on by many of my students and parents.”

Later that night, about 500 neighbors — a mix of teenagers, families with young children, and older couples — respond