Cape Breton University asking community to welcome students

SYDNEY — Cape Breton University is launching a Paint the Town Orange campaign encouraging businesses and households to welcome students to Cape Breton and show support for the university.

CBU officials say the Week of Welcome for students that starts Saturday is being extended into the community.

“We want CBU students to embrace the local community and we want the local community to embrace the university,” said spokesperson Becky Chisholm in a release. “The Paint the Town Orange initiative will help achieve this.”

Businesses and households are being asked to show their support for CBU by hanging an orange poster in their windows during the Week of Welcome and throughout the year and businesses can also connect with CBU students through student promotions, the release said.

Businesses and organizations with marquees are encouraged to use them to welcome students to the community.

“We hope that all the communities that surround the university will participate in the program as many CBU students live in Glace Bay, New Waterford, Whitney Pier, North Sydney and Sydney,” said Chisholm. “They contribute to the community as residents, volunteers and consumers and enrich culture in the area. So let’s make them feel welcome.”

Chisholm said the Paint the Town Orange initiative reflects a realization by the student orientation committee planning the Week of Welcome events that the student body at CBU has changed and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality has become a university community.

Close to 46 per cent of the more than 3,300 students at CBU come from places other than Cape Breton while close to 2,000 Cape Breton students have chosen CBU for their post-secondary studies, Chisholm said.

CBU is also inviting the greater community to attend an event called Capers Fest featuring campus tours, musical entertainment, fun and games to help welcome students to campus and into the community.

The event, on Sunday from 2-4 p.m., is taking place in the CBU courtyard.

For a complete schedule of the Week of Welcome visit www.cbu.ca.

For more information or to get involved in the Paint the Town Orange initiative, contact Chisholm at becky_chisholm@cbu.ca or Sarah Farrow at sarah_farrow@cbu.ca.

We want CBU students to embrace the local community and we want the local community to embrace the

university.

Becky Chisholm, spokesperson, Paint the Town Orange

initiative