LWC A.P. White Campus celebrates Malvina Farkle Day

'Today we made a difference.'
-DAVID GRIGSBY, LWC Cyling Coach

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By Duane Bonifer, LWC Director of Public Affairs

Lindsey Wilson College student Token Percell received a rude awakening Wednesday morning. Shortly before 7:00amCT, Percell sprang out of his bed when he heard fire alarms, people speaking through bullhorns and fists pounding on doors.

"I didn't know what it was at first," said Percell, a freshman from Bowling Green, KY. Then he realized the occasion for stirring students shortly after dawn. It was Malvina Farkle Day on Lindsey Wilson's A.P. White Campus.

Malvina Farkle Day is named after a mythical college student and employee who was dedicated to community service and good times.

The day includes a morning of community service activities followed by an afternoon of campus games.

Students are not told when the day will be celebrated, but they are told that it will likely come shortly after the start of the school year.

Classes were dismissed and offices were closed Wednesday, following a proclamation issued by Lindsey Wilson President William T. Luckey Jr.

"There is an amazing group of talent in this room," Luckey told the students Wednesday morning in Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center. "You're an incredible generation with a heart for service unlike when I went to college, I can tell you."

Luckey told the students Malvina Farkle Day is an opportunity for the LWC community to give back to Columbia-Adair County."We're going to be making improvements all across this community today," he said. "When you get right down to it, that's what it's about: trying to make this a better place for people who follow us."

Hundreds of students dispersed into Columbia-Adair Co. to perform community service

Percell was among a group of LWC students who helped clean the A.P. White Campus. But hundreds of other students, faculty and staff members dispersed into Columbia-Adair County to work with school children, the elderly and nature. Community projects included washing windows at Trinity United Methodist Church, cleaning cages at Green River Animal Shelter, sprucing up the grave of Col. William Casey and performing small maintenance jobs at Joe Johnson Little League Park.

"We hold the day early in the year to give our new students a chance to bond with one another, and we also want them to go out into the community and learn more about Columbia-Adair County," said LWC Student Activities Director Jayne Hopkins, who was responsible for organizing the day's events.

Associate Dean of the Faculty Lori Sargent led a contingent of 46 to the Old Home Place near the Taylor-Adair county line. The almost four dozen volunteers pulled grass out of the pumpkin patch, cleaned pathways in the corn maze, cleared an area near the property's spring and brushed rust off antique equipment that will be restored.

Day is opportunity to put beliefs into action

Assistant Professor of History Melinda J. Senters, who has been at the college for the last 10 Malvina Farkle Days, said the tradition is more than simply a day of community service. "It's an opportunity to put into practice what you say you believe in," Senters said.

Lindsey Wilson seniors Molly Atkinson of Louisville, KY, Megan Harris of Morganfield, KY, and Amanda Johnson Morganfield said that in the four years they have participated in the event they have seen Malvina Farkle Day bring the college closer to its host community as well as students from different backgrounds together.

"I like that people come out of their rooms to do something together," Atkinson said.

Harris said students' participation in the day "shows the community that we care."

LWC cycling coach David Grigsby posted on Twitter (twitter.com/bikecoachdave) that his team took 40 students for a cleanup at Holmes Bend.

"Malvina Farkle Day is one great event," he wrote on a Twitter post that included a link to a picture he snapped at the scene.

Percell, the freshman from Bowling Green, said he was glad he got up earlier than normal to participate in his first Malvina Farkle Day.

"I really liked doing something different and helping in the community," he said.

Or as Grigsby posted on his Facebook page: "Today we made a difference."



This story was posted on 2009-09-17 06:54:02
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