Featured image for post: Barton College’s 11th Annual Day of Service Held on October 17

Barton College’s 11th Annual Day of Service Held on October 17

WILSON, N.C. — We wouldn’t be surprised if you saw a blur of blue t-shirts zipping by as Barton Bulldogs headed out to their assigned service sites on Wednesday morning, Oct. 17. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni in their signature t-shirts served a multitude of local organizations during the College’s annual “Day of Service.”

With more than 800 Barton participants signed up, students and professors at the College set aside books, and campus staff members and area alumni stepped away from desks, for the eleventh annual “Day of Service” on campus and in the Wilson community. And, this year, the College even had teams who headed east to the towns of Trenton and New Bern to provide hurricane relief service to those impacted so severely earlier this semester.

When asked about the Day of Service prior to the Kick-Off gathering this morning, Barton College Chaplain and Director of Campus Ministries David Finnegan-Hosey shared, “It’s exciting to see Barton’s 11th Annual Day of Service coming together in a way that honors existing relationships with community organizations while also opening up new possibilities for collaboration. This year, we are particularly grateful for our teams headed to Trenton and New Bern to assist in hurricane recovery work as well as our groups on campus who will be packing school supply and hygiene kits to be delivered to areas in recovery from disaster. We see this as another piece of our ongoing effort to provide care and support to our neighbors, not to mention our own students and community members, who were most impacted by the recent storms.”

Begun in 2008, this campus initiative continues to support Barton’s vision for its graduates to be “well-prepared for life and for success in their chosen careers because they will possess a lifelong commitment to learning, service, and achievement.” This well-established program, now 11 years old, has become one of the most highly anticipated annual events for the campus community.

Through participation in these one-day projects, Barton hopes to provide its students with a foundation for developing a deeper appreciation for service learning and a stronger sense of civic responsibility, as well as meeting needs within the Wilson community. Developing a lifelong commitment to service is part of the “Barton Experience,” and Barton College’s “Day of Service” provides an intentional opportunity for the campus community to give back to its hometown community of Wilson.

Barton College’s “Day of Service” began with a kick-off breakfast for participants at 8 a.m. followed by brief remarks from campus leaders. Members of the college community then dispersed to assigned locations across the city for service and returned to campus later this afternoon to share a meal and reports of work.

Local service projects for the 2018 Day of Service this year included working with: Atlantic Christian College Drive Clean-Up, Raleigh Road Clean-Up, Woodard Street Clean-Up, Arts Council of Wilson, Black Creek United Methodist Church, Brian Center, Botanical Gardens, Bridgestone, Carriage House at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, Eastern N.C. School for the Deaf, Ecological Forest, First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Flynn Christian Fellowship Home, Greenfield School, Habitat for Humanity, Hope Station, Hurricane Packing Kits, Imagination Station, Kiddie Kampus Child Care Center, Lucama Elementary School, New Hope Elementary School, New Hope Elementary School, New Bern Hurricane Relief, Oliver Nestus Freeman Round House Museum, Preservation of Wilson, Rocky Mount High School, Sallie B. Howard School, St. Therese Catholic Church, Save a Youth, Seeds of Hope, Toisnot Middle School, Trenton Hurricane Relief, The Spot, Wells Elementary School, Wesley Shelter, Willow Springs Country Club, Wilson Family YMCA, Wilson House Assisted Living, and Y.O.U.T.H. of Wilson, among others.

END