Tusculum College students, faculty, staff and alumni demonstrated the college’s commitment to both learning and serving on Tuesday, Sept. 15, as they spent the day helping others and improving the community.
All freshmen and first-year transfer students participated in Nettie Fowler McCormick Service Day as part of the Tusculum Experience course. Many other students, faculty, staff and alumni also volunteered. Nettie Fowler McCormick Service Day is one of the longest-held traditions on the Tusculum campus and involves students spending time in service to others.
“Community engagement is a key element of the Tusculum College experience,” said Ronda Gentry, director of the Center for Civic Advancement and coordinator of the event. “Nettie Day serves as an introduction to our new students and a reminder to our entire community of the importance and value of community involvement.”
Students hosted a “fun field day” for local elementary school students in the morning. The day was complete with water balloons, limbo games, jump ropes and hula hoops. In the afternoon volunteers worked to spruce up the campus, mending fences at the Doak House Museum, painting in the residence halls and house, landscaping across campus and de-molding books at the President Andrew Johnson Library and Museum.
Tusculum College students and Greene County elementary school students pass a hula hoop to each other during one of the Field Day activities on campus Tuesday morning.
This year, Nettie Day was held as part of the Orange Rush activities on campus, which included a variety of activities to engage new students and encourage them to get involved on campus and in the community. Service activities were conducted at all the Tusculum sites and campus, including Greeneville, Knoxville, Morristown and Kingsport. Nearly 600 volunteers participated.
“Reflective decision-making, concern for others, and action to make the world a better place are and have for 222 years been ingrained in the key values of this institution,” said Dr. Nancy B. Moody, president of Tusculum College. “It is a hallmark of the Tusculum College student and the Tusculum College alumni.”
Nettie Fowler McCormick Service Day, which is conducted under the auspices of the Center for Civic Advancement, honors the memory and altruistic way of life of Nettie Fowler McCormick, widow of reaper inventor Cyrus McCormick, who was a 19th century supporter and advocate of Tusculum College. The McCormicks, staunch Presbyterians from Chicago, learned of Tusculum College through Tusculum graduates who attended their McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and became some of the most significant donors in the college’s history.
Tusculum College students work to repair the fence at the Doak House Museum as part of Nettie Day on campus.
Nettie McCormick is recognized as the college’s first Benefactor, a term that in Tusculum usage denotes a donor whose cumulative gifts total at least $1 million. Nettie McCormick funded construction of several of Tusculum’s historic structures, including Haynes Hall, Rankin Hall, Welty-Craig Hall, Virginia Hall and McCormick Hall, which is named after the McCormick family.
McCormick Day, now often informally called Nettie Day at the college, began as a day of cleaning the campus in reflection of Nettie McCormick’s insistence on clean living environments. The day has evolved to take on a more generalized community service emphasis.
To view more photos from Nettie Day, visit Tusculum’s Facebook page.