LWC Community Celebrates Service on Malvina Farkle Day

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- Lindsey Wilson College staff member Adam Capps got to see Malvina Farkle Day from a different perspective Wednesday.

For the last four years, Capps had been involved with LWC's annual day of service as a student. But as the college's new assistant director of student activities, he saw the event from another perspective when it was held Wednesday.

"I am more involved now than I was as a student in previous years. I am more involved in the behind-the-scenes stuff," Capps said. "I am able to see how much planning goes into the two to three months leading up to Melvina Farkle Day."

Malvina Farkle Day is an annual day of community service at LWC. Classes are canceled and offices are closed so students, faculty and staff can participate in community-service projects. The day is named in memory of a mythical and legendary Lindsey Wilson alumna and staff member who was known for her community staff and practical jokes.

"I think that Malvina Farkle Day  is important because it shows what Lindsey Wilson College is all about," Capps said. "Our mission is 'every student , every day,' and Malvina Farkle Day fits in so perfectly with that idea. It is a big deal whenever you can get 1,000 students to go out into the community and do service. The jobs they do are jobs that usually wouldn't have been done without a day like this."

This year's Malvina Farkle Day community-service projects included more than two dozen sites in Columbia-Adair County.

"There are so many things we can do as a community when we come together and decide to make a difference in Adair County and surrounding counties," LWC President William T. Luckey Jr. told students, faculty and staff in Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center shortly before canceling classes for the day. "Adair County will be a different place because of what you will do today."

One of the long-term benefits of Malvina Farkle Day is that it introduces community-service opportunities to members of the LWC community.

"This is a really great opportunity for them to just to get their feet wet in that and maybe figure out that's really something they really love to do," said LWC Director of Student Activities Jayne Hopkins, who is in charge of the day.

Community organizations also value the day.

"The community is always excited about it. Whenever I call people and say, 'Would you like to have a group out for Malvina Farkle Day,' they know exactly what I'm talking about … They love the help," Hopkins said.

After a morning of community-service activities, the day concluded with a picnic on the Campus Quadrangle and games.

For freshman Chris Oldham of Lexington, Ky., participating in his first Malvina Farkle Day was an opportunity to better connect with Columbia-Adair County. Oldham and other members of the LWC football program collected trash in Columbia neighborhoods.

"We wanted to keep our community clean," he said. "It also provided us a chance to talk with and interact with (members of) the local community. It was great to hear people thank us and have a positive impact on our local community."

LWC nursing students who helped administer blood-pressure checks at Walmart said the day's events also provided them with a valuable and memorable experience.

"I am glad I went because I was able to help give to the community as well as gain practical skills from it as well," said Josh Pence, a sophomore from Carrollton, Ky. "Taking blood pressure is something that we have not yet covered in class so it was nice to learn something new on the site. It's cool seeing how much impact we as a college have on the town. Everyone around here supports Lindsey Wilson, so we should support them as well and show that we care."

Fellow nursing major Rachel Ray of White Mills, Ky., said Malvina Farkle Day also reminded her why she chose her major.

"I'm a nursing major so I spend a lot of my time in my room studying, so I don't get out much. Malvina Farkle Day is a nice refresher -- it allows me to get out of my room and out of my head for awhile," she said. "I saw a cute couple who had been married for 50-plus years who held each other's hands as they got their blood pressure taken. It was so adorable. It's the small stuff like that reminds us that we go into our majors to help people like that. It helps keep us focused on why we are here at college -- it reminds us that we are doing this for the greater good."

Hopkins said Malvina Farkle Day is a near-perfect example of the LWC ethos express in the college's mission statement.

"When you see the students and the faculty and the staff and the community all working together and coming together just to serve and to get to know one another to build each other up, that is really the energy of the day and that sustains us and it keeps us going and reminds us of what we're here to do -- and that is to see every student, every day, learn and grow and become a complete human being," she said. "And that's what it's all about."

This year's Malvina Farkle Day community-service projects included the following locations:

* Adair County High School
* Adair County Family Resource Center
* Adair County Middle School
* Adair County Public Library
* Adair Youth Development Center
* Bomar Heights Cycling Course
* Columbia-Adair County Food Pantry
* Columbia Public Square
* Columbia United Methodist Church
* Dollhouse Daycare
* Dunbar Cemetery Cleanup
* Edlercare
* Good Shepherd Catholic Church and Good Shepherd Shop
* Green River Animal Shelter
* Highway 55 Roadside Park
* Highway 80 Cleanup
* Homeplace on Green River
* Mary's House Project
* Old Homeplace Adult Daycare
* Pride Cleanup along Columbia Roads
* Summit Manor Nursing Home
* Trash Pickup Along Bull Run Road
* Trinity United Methodist Church
* Walmart

To nominate a site for next year's Malvina Farkle Day, contact Hopkins at hopkinsj@lindsey.edu or (270) 384-8033.

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Click here to see more pictures from the day.