Sweet Briar College
Media, Marketing and Communications Office
P.O. Box 1056
Sweet Briar, VA 24595
{P} 434.381.6262
{F} 434.381.6263
The Sweet Briar Promise outlines our distinctive approach for providing meaningful, enduring education for women. It includes:
At about 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 6, a small group of Sweet Briar students set off into the woods around Sweet Briar’s Lower Lake to do some much-needed maintenance on the College’s hiking trails.
They were going to “blaze trails,” Kate Macklin, a first-year environmental studies major from Seattle, said as the three students gathered the necessary tools — hammers, nails, gloves and a rake — and walked toward the dam on a gravel path that follows the lake’s edge.
Kate Macklin, a first-year environmental studies major, rakes the trail. Laura McKenna ’10 (in red) and Stacy Ludington ’12 walk ahead to mark the trail.Many of the old trail markers — plastic yellow triangles nailed to trees at semi-regular intervals — needed replacing. Some were broken and the old markers didn’t indicate whether you were headed toward or away from campus.
The new markers — dark blue and yellow circles with shiny silver arrows — were provided by SWEBOP, Sweet Briar’s outdoor programs office. Following the yellow markers would take you away from campus, Macklin explained, and the blue ones would take you home.
The trail maintenance was part of Sweet Briar’s second Campus-wide Day of Service, sponsored by the Student Office of Community Outreach. Throughout the day, students fanned out around the Lynchburg area to lend a hand to local agencies.
Some students started the day preparing and serving lunch at Lynchburg Daily Bread. Annually, the Daily Bread and its volunteers provide more than 40,000 meals to those in need. The students arrived at 9 a.m. to prepare the food, and after serving the midday meal helped with cleanup.
That afternoon, volunteers visited the Adult Care Center of Central Virginia. The program, which is located at Court Street United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, offers daytime support to adults with special needs and their families. Students played games with the clients and helped the full-time staff create new activities.
Students also performed cleaning duties and yard work that afternoon at Miriam’s House, a Lynchburg group that helps homeless women and their children. Miriam’s House has the goal of “ending homelessness and rebuilding lives through empowerment of women and families.”
For more information about Campus-wide Day of Service, e-mail soco@sbc.edu .
