This year, the Class of 2025 is returning to the tradition of celebrating their Ring Dinner at the Prestonwood Country Club after the change in venue last year due to Covid-19. The Class of 2024 celebrated Ring Dinner in the “Reimaged Cate Center Parking Lot,” which had various responses from students.
On Sep. 26, 2022, a petition was created to express the concerns and questions about the Class of 2024’s Ring Dinner venue. The petition quickly rose to collect over 1,000 signatures. Many people took to the comments to air their grievances. One of the main things said was that the venue never should have been changed and they wanted to make sure it did not happen again.
This year, Ring Dinner has gone back to tradition and will be hosted at the Prestonwood Country Club. Abby Dittmann, a Class of 2024 Ring Week Co-Chair, stated that she “was not surprised Ring Dinner would be held at a country club this year “ and that “because Covid protocols have decreased, it is not surprising that it would be back there.”
When asked if Ditmann would change anything about her own Ring Dinner experience, she stated that if she could she would “prefer it to be at the country club but in the long run it [did] not matter to [her]” and that she enjoyed her Ring dinner experience in the parking lot. Ditmann also added that she thought the Student Leadership and Service (SLS) and the Ring Dinner Co-Chairs did a “great job making it nice and enjoyable.”
Hadleigh John, one of the Class of 2025 Ring Dinner Co-Chairs, was asked how she reacted last year to the Ring Dinner being in the Cate Parking Lot. She stated that she “thought about how, for a lot of off-campus Meredith traditions, SLS has to reserve those venues well ahead of time, so they had probably decided to have Ring Dinner in the parking lot the semester before” and that “if this were the case, it would make sense that SLS did not want to risk booking a venue for a large amount of money and then not be able to have the event due to a COVID-19 outbreak.”
With the past location, John said that she had reservations about the venue when she found out she was going to be a co-chair, but stated that “it was cleared up in [the] first Ring Dinner meeting” held in Marchof this year, and that “SLS had already booked the Prestonwood Country Club for [the Class of 2025’s] Ring Dinner.” She included that her and her Co-Chair, Maddie Comley, “are super happy about the event taking place at this elegant venue” when asked about the chosen location.
The Class of 2025 included a special thanks to their staff adviser, Emily Saylor, the Class President, Sophie Phillips and everyone else who has helped plan the event. Ring Dinner Tickets are currently on sale until Oct. 13 and can be purchased through the link in the bio of @ringdinnerandweek23 on Instagram.
It was also shared that for any questions, students should reach out to Hadleigh John at hgjohn@email.meredith.edu or Maddie Comley at mpcomley@email.meredith.edu. For questions about the tradition fund, reach out to Emily Saylor at eksaylor@meredith.edu.
By Riley Heeb, Opinion Editor
Photo by Grayson Morris