Lipscomb students were given the opportunity to come together and go out all over Nashville and serve others Wednesday afternoon.
Classes were cancelled from noon – 4 p.m. to allow students the opportunity to go out into the community to give back. Around 1,200 students, faculty, and staff members participated in Service Day. Sam Smith organized the annual event.
Service Day started with the students gathering in Allen Arena to eat lunch and meet with their service teams. After taking a group picture, the teams departed to go to their service locations. Students were able to choose to go to one of multiple locations offered, such as Healing Hands, ThriftSmart, Room in the Inn, Save the Cumberland and more.
Freshman Savannah Royston volunteered at “Soles4Souls,” sorting hundreds of shoes by rubber-banding them and separating by size. The shoes that Lipscomb students sorted will be sent to people to provide disaster relief in Alabama.
“The whole experience was really meaningful because I knew what I was doing would help someone,” Royston said. “A lot of times I want to help, and I don’t know how to, so this gave me purpose while serving.”
Other students from Lipscomb traveled to “The Branch” to volunteer. The Branch is an organization that gives food to people in the community and also provides English tutors. The students’ jobs yesterday afternoon varied from cleaning classrooms, organizing storage areas and building greenhouses. Freshman Sam Gerard was on the team who built a greenhouse.
“It was a lot of fun because I enjoy building things, and I had a great group to work with,” Gerard said.
The College of Business traveled to Cumberland Elementary School to provide them with “dream journals” to write their goals in. The journals were provided by Snider Fleet Inc. to give to kids in grades K-4.
Sophomore Maddy Brooks served elementary students with The College of Business. Brooks noted that her favorite part of the afternoon was building relationships with these young students.
“They had no doubt in their ability to achieve their dreams,” Brooks said.
In addition, Lipscomb’s business students gave the faculty and staff of Cumberland Elementary School thank you notes. The elementary students also chose to give back, writing letters to Lipscomb’s students afterwards.
“It was cool to how much the teachers and principal cared about the kids,” Brooks said. “The principal prayed for us before we left. You could tell how excited the staff was to see us pour into these kids and what a big deal it was to them.”
Photo courtesy of Katlyn Council
Note: Originally, this article stated 900 students participated in Service Day. Lumination later found out that number was approximately 1,200.