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Class Assignment A Chance For Rowan Senior To Revive Family Tradition

By Mark Abrams

GLASSBORO, NJ (CBS) - A Rowan University senior's final paper for a class gave her a chance to share a very special family Christmas tradition.

Kelsey Bozarth is from Burlington Township and just finished taking professor Dianne Ashton's "Holidays and American Culture" class at Rowan University.

Bozarth says her final project focused on Christmas songs and the impact they have on culture.

Bozarth says, since she's been a young child, she and her cousins, get together each Christmas Eve at her grandparents house and dance and sing to her grandfather's favorite song about a Hawaiian Christmas.

"He loved the song 'Mele Kalikimaka' by Bing Crosby. So, whenever that song would come on, on the CD player, we would all run out to the living room and perform it in front of the fireplace."

Bozarth says her grandfather, Edward Viareck, died in Aug. 2009, but the tradition continues in his memory.

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