My birthday is Aug. 1, 2022.
My favorite food is Portzelky or New Year’s Cookies – a traditional Mennonite comfort food, served with lots of hot coffee for breakfast.
My favorite colors are, of course, Thresher gray and maroon. “Graymaroon” was Bethel College’s original (if imprecise) mascot, until 1960, when the college president made a change. He thought Bethel deserved a better symbol than the vague Graymaroon and, under his direction, Bethel athletics became the Threshers.
My favorite song is “Father Abraham,” the Thresher football victory song
My favorite pastime is cheering for the Threshers and meeting future Threshers.
My hidden talent? Rolling on!
Hi, I’m Threshy Thresher! I am named for the threshing stone, a wheat harvesting device used by the early Russian Mennonite settlers who brought red winter wheat to the Kansas plains in 1874, just a few years before Bethel College was founded. Pulled by horses, the threshing stone was used to separate the head of a stalk of grain from the straw, and then further separate the kernel from the rest of the head. As one of our alumni said so well: “The threshing stone is a tool that provides nourishment for our bodies by separating the wheat from the chaff — just as the college provides nourishment for our minds and lives.”
I am proud to cheer for Thresher student-athletes on the court, the field and the pitch with all the fans in the Stone Zone. What you might not know is that our student-athletes are just as successful in the classroom as out of it. Bethel College Threshers were recently named to the NAIA’s Gold Level Champion of Character status for the fifth straight season, the second-longest run in the KCAC.
I love all Threshers and our welcoming, inclusive campus. I invite you to visit us in North Newton, Kansas, and join the Thresher family. What do all students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and friends of Bethel College have in common? We are Threshers! Roll On!
