This past summer, senior Milton Stewart began planning a student club that would not only be dedicated to serving White County, but also allow students to completely create, organize and promote projects. Those plans became a reality as he formed Volunteer Harding.
Stewart said once he created a club constitution, found a faculty sponsor, set up a leadership system and recruited a sufficient amount of members, the administration officially recognized Volunteer Harding as a student organization three weeks into the semester.
“Over the summer, I wanted to create an organization that was based purely on volunteering because Harding did not have one,” Stewart said. “I think a lot of people want to get involved but do not know how.”
Stewart said the new club already has between 40 and 50 student members.
“On the front lawn, when they had the Back to School Bash, we had a table out there,” Stewart said as he explained how Volunteer Harding recruited so many students so quickly. “A lot of freshmen came by and I talked to them about [Volunteer Harding]. And though my table looked a little raggedy, and I didn’t have any pictures up because we were a new club, I talked to them and was honest and real with them.”
Stewart said he contacted friends over the summer to create the executive committee. Stewart serves as the club president, with four vice presidents and 16 executive members. The club is separated into different ministries: the ministry for the elderly, the children’s ministry, the Judsonia warehouse ministry and the ready response team.
“The [Judsonia] warehouse stores and delivers medical supplies,” senior Ben Ash, vice president of logistics, said. “If someone needs their lawn raked or help with something at the last minute, the [ready response] team is ready for stuff like that. If someone needs something like getting their lawns raked, they can contact us and we can send people there right away.”
Ash said his job is to organize tools and reserve spaces for their big events. Ash said there were also vice presidents for public relations and fund raising.
Stewart said Volunteer Harding has several plans for helping students get involved in the coming weeks. He said the club meets every two weeks in McInteer room 150 where they plan their next projects.
“We do one big project every month and so within that we have the idea, we plan it and we make it happen,” Stewart said. “It is a great feeling to have an idea and then actually do it.”
Volunteer Harding has a Facebook page, a Twitter account, its own website and a mobile page to be “tech savvy to keep people interested and letting people know what’s going on,” according to Stewart.
“The more people we have that are interested, the more we can help the community,” Ash said. “And that way we can be better representatives for both the university and for Christians.”
