Randolph-Macon College’s 11th annual Macon a Difference Day (MaDD), which took place on April 30, 2016, is an RMC tradition that began in 2006 and celebrates Earth Day. This campus-wide community-service initiative brings together the college’s clubs, organizations and academic and administrative departments to clean up the RMC and Ashland communities. Students, staff and faculty volunteer their time and energy while making connections with the Ashland community.

Photos: Macon a Difference Day 2016

Collaboration
Volunteers worked with representatives from the Town of Ashland and chose from numerous community-service projects, including storm sewer stenciling; sprucing up the Ashland Visitor Center; cleaning up Mechumps Creek; and landscape maintenance at Hanover County’s Poor Farm Park.

At Mechumps Creek, Connor Diskin ’18 and his classmates worked together. “We picked up a lot of trash and cut down vines,” says Diskin, a Business major and Communication Studies minor. “We even went to the extreme and built a bridge out of logs to get across the water and pick up trash on the other side.”

At RMC’s Brian Wesley Moores Native Plant Garden, Religious Studies Professor Timothy Brown worked alongside students.

“Macon a Difference Day is one of our most important cleanup days,” said Brown. “We get a lot of students in here, and we’re just weeding and mulching and making sure that the plantings that have been put in over the years are sustained in the future. They’re doing a great job getting everything mulched and ready for the long, hot summer.” The garden, which was built in 2015, honors Chemistry Professor Emeritus Brian Moores.

Global Youth Service Day
For the fifth consecutive year, RMC collaborated with the Hanover County Department of Community Resources on their annual Global Youth Service Day (GYSD). Celebrated in over 100 countries, Global Youth Service Day is an annual worldwide event that mobilizes millions of young people to improve their communities through service and service-learning.

“Hanover has one of the most active GYSD events in the country with thousands of youths participating each year,” says Jayme Watkins, assistant director of student life at RMC.  “It is a great partnership, as MaDD projects really enhance GYSD.”

Partnerships
The Randolph-Macon community prides itself in giving back to the community and partnering with other organizations, including the Ashland-Hanover community. Watkins is thrilled that MaDD is a collaborative event that brings together the town and the college.

“I am grateful to the residents of Ashland and to the MaDD Steering Committee: Chaplain Kendra Grimes, Hanover Youth Specialist David Duck, Laurie Preston (head of reference in the McGraw-Page Library), Mayumi Nakamura (assistant director of International Education), and Religious Studies Professor Timothy Brown,” says Watkins. “Their hard work in helping organize MaDD means that participants had a fun, productive day and learned the value of building meaningful partnerships.”