by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

“We can do this!” said Sewanee Civic Association President Kiki Beavers at the inaugural meeting of the SCA’s 117th year. The SCA recently celebrated the opening of the Sewanee Welcome Center, a SCA driven project high in challenges and manifest in rewards. At the Oct. 6 dinner meeting, Beavers announced the SCA Community Chest goals for 2025-2026, highlighting the urgency of generosity with community need on the rise. Appropriately, the evening’s speakers were Dr. Amy Patterson and Robin Hille Michaels from the University Office of Civic Engagement (OCE). With the OCE in existence just over 10 years, 90 percent of seniors now report engaging in community service. Patterson and Hille Michaels provided an overview of programs and the OCE’s success in assisting in-need local populations and the grassroots organizations. Driven by the conviction the people with boots on the ground should lead, Director of Service Internships Hille Michael’s said of the OCE’s modus operandi, “The partners are the experts.”

OCE Director, Patterson recounted the OCE’s origin story. A 2007 gift funded the creation of a Canale Leaders program modeled after the Rhodes College program to foster students working with local community partners for positive social change. In 2011, the Bonners Leaders program, a four-year paid internship available to all freshman, evolved as a natural outgrowth of the community service orientation taking hold at Sewanee. The University’s 2012 strategic plan established a single office for community partnership, with Jim Peterman serving as the OCE’s first director beginning in 2014.

“Reciprocal community relationships allow us to integrate the academic with the civic, the practice with the theory, for experiential learning to make students into active citizens,” Patterson said. The OCE currently has 70 student interns serving 35 organizations in four counties, Coffee, Franklin, Grundy, and Marion. “In this politically polarized moment we think it’s really important for students to get the skills of active listening, perspective taking, and practicing empathy,” Patterson insisted. Students work with community partners to identify issues then delve into researching and implementing solutions. “A Bonner student can really get to know a community partner working with them for so many years and get a strong sense of what’s needed,” Hille Michaels said.

Alternatively, the Pathways to Community Engagement program provides an opportunity for interaction between students with limited time and community partners with short term needs. Similarly, in the intensive 10-week AmeriCorp summer service program, civic-minded students and community members work together to address community needs. The AmeriCorp Summer Meals Program served 92,000 meals over eight weeks on the Plateau and in Winchester. A new program, the First Year Experience, engages students with the community, local issues, and local history before they start classes. This past August 35 students participated. In 2026, the First Year Experience will be the introduction to the community for all incoming freshman.

For the SCA, with its long history of community service, Beavers’ account of a decrease in giving on several fronts and of the increase in need point to the coming year’s challenges. The 2024-2025 Community Chest fund drive goal of $123,456 fell $2,493 short. Donations to the School Supply Drive, and the Stock the Pantry Supply Drive hosted with the Community Action Committee were half what they had been in the past. Meanwhile the number of Food Pantry clients relying on the CAC has doubled. “Any time you’re at the store, buy an extra can of chicken noodle soup or macaroni and cheese and drop it off at the CAC office at Kennerly Hall or the donation box at the entrance to Claiborne Hall,” Beavers urged. Donations can also be made through an Amazon link <https://a.co/f6TXKX4>;.

CAC Director Sarah Edmonds and Sewanee Parents’ Organization President Ben Austin will steward the 2025-2026 Community Chest fund drive. The steering committee pared down $145,000 in requests for assistance to a goal of $118,500. The 19 to-be recipients include Housing Sewanee, the Mountain Goat Trail Alliance, the Senior Citizens Center, and Easy’s Dog Shelter in Tracy City, new to the Community Chest grantees’ list this year. “Many of these places would not exist without Community Chest donations,” Beavers stressed. Committed to improving the quality of life in Sewanee and the surrounding community, the Community Chest theme, “Donations Work Here” rings true, as does Beavers invocation, “We can do this!”

For more information or to make a donation to the Sewanee Community Chest, go to <www.sewaneecivic.org>.