Sept. 19, 2001

The University of Notre Dame’s home football game Saturday (Sept. 22) against Michigan State will be marked by prayer, song, and fund-raising on behalf of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Some 300 students, as well as Notre Dame Stadium personnel, will take up a collection during the game for the aid of families of the New York City police and firefighters killed in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center. All Mass and prayer service collections during the past week, and continuing through the coming weekend, have been devoted to these families.

Pregame ceremonies will feature a prayer offered by the University’s president, Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C. The University’s marching band will precede Father Malloy with its traditional rendition of “America The Beautiful” and follow his prayer with the national anthem.

The band’s halftime performance will feature a concluding performance of “Amazing Grace” by more than 700 musicians from the combined Notre Dame and Michigan State bands. The show also will include patriotic songs, including a vocal performance by Anney Gillotte, a Notre Dame senior from Laingsburg, Mich.

On campus before the game, students in the master of accountancy program will combine with the residents of Walsh Hall on a project to hand out red, white and blue ribbons attached to a card inscribed with the peace prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.

Other activities related to the attacks include:

* The topic for the first Saturday Scholar Series event sponsored by the College of Arts and Letters has been changed to “Responses to Terrorism: Perspectives on the September 11 Tragedy.” A panel of Notre Dame experts on peace building, American politics and Islam will offer observations beginning at 10 a.m. in the auditorium of the Hesburgh Center for International Studies. (Members of Actors From the London Stage had been scheduled to perform “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on campus this weekend and inaugurate the Saturday Scholar Series. They were unable to make travel arrangements in the aftermath of the attacks and have been rescheduled for the weekend of Nov. 8-10.)

* 80,000 American flags printed by the South Bend Tribune will be distributed by Notre Dame student-athletes to fans entering Notre Dame Stadium.

* The Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore will donate all proceeds from the sales of a specially designed T-shirt to the relief fund for families of firefighters and police officers. The front of the blue shirt has an image of the flag of the United States within an interlocking ND. A flag is on the back with the words “God Bless America, Stand Beside Her And Guide Her.”