Randolph-Macon College’s 13th annual Macon a Difference Day (MaDD) took place April 22, 2018. This RMC tradition, which celebrates Earth Day, began in 2006. The campus-wide community-service initiative brought together the college’s clubs, organizations and academic and administrative departments to clean up and beautify the RMC and Ashland communities. Students, staff and faculty volunteered their time and energy and at the same time made connections with the Ashland community.

Springing into Action
Volunteers could choose from numerous community-service projects, including: cleaning up Mechumps Creek; planting and mulching at RMC’s Brian Wesley Moores Native Plant Garden; planting at the college’s International House Garden; and sprucing up Ashland residents’ homes.

Building Bridges, Giving Back
Biology Professor Nicholas Ruppel and Religious Studies Professor Timothy Brown worked alongside MaDD student-volunteers and local Master Naturalists (Riverine Chapter) in RMC’s Brian Wesley Moores Native Plant Garden. More than 325 new plants were donated through the Habitat Partners Program of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF). This partnership was established to promote environmental education initiatives like the plant-pollinator studies that Ruppel conducts in the garden.

“The RMC MaDD participants allowed us to realize our goal of increasing the overall diversity and abundance of plant life in the garden,” says Ruppel. “Without the students’ help, there’s no way we could have installed all the plants in a timely fashion.”

For Syreen Goulmamine ’19, MaDD was “a day of service focusing on giving back to our home, planet Earth.” Goulmamine, who served on the MaDD planning committee, says, “This project at the Native Plant Garden, in which community and RMC members worked together, really emphasized for me the great relationships we have at RMC. I look forward to seeing the progression of the garden over time.”

Global Youth Service Day
“We loved collaborating with the Hanover County Department of Community Resources on their annual Global Youth Service Day for the seventh consecutive year,” says Jayme Watkins, director of Student Life. 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.

Watkins also oversees the Students Engaged in Responsible Volunteer Experiences (SERVE) program and student organizations, and advises the Service Fellows, Interfraternity Council, and College Panhellenic Council.

Passion for Service
“I am especially grateful to the MaDD Committee: Syreen Goulmamine ’19, Alina Pacione ’18, Eddie Saunders ’19, Abigail Williams ’19, and Darryl Williams ’19,” says Watkins. “This year MaDD was entirely student-organized and run. It is because of our students’ passion for service that participants had a fun, productive day.”

Establishing Roots
In the spirit of town-campus collaboration, one of the yearly features of Macon a Difference Day is a tree planting. This year, RMC President Robert R. Lindgren, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Grant Azdell, representatives from the Town of Ashland, and RMC students and staff, shovels in hand, planted a tree on April 27 (Arbor Day) in front of Pufferbelly Park. Garet Prior, the senior planner for the Town of Ashland, also attended the planting and gave a proclamation naming Ashland a Tree City for the 27th year.

Giving Back
In 2016-17, RMC students collectively amassed more than 17,000 volunteer hours and donated $47,075 to various causes. Students in Fraternity and Sorority Life contributed more than 10,049 hours of collective service to the community and donated nearly $27,683 to various organizations and philanthropies. In addition, $14,000 was raised and donated to the American Cancer Society from the annual Relay for Life.

Over 300 students participated RMC’s second Big Event, a day of service to give thanks to the Ashland community. The Students Engaged in Responsible Volunteer Experiences (SERVE) program, in the Office of Student Life, is an integral part of Randolph-Macon College.