Liberty’s Annual “Serve Lynchburg” Outreach Assists Over 80 Organizations

Nearly 1,500 students joined community partners from April 16-17, assisting 84 organizations with the goal of serving them and their needs during the Serve Lynchburg initiative. 

The annual event uses the hands of Liberty students, faculty, staff and residents of Lynchburg to help the community in a multitude of ways and actions. Although this year included safety measures including masks and social distancing, the restrictions did not stop students from serving. Students signed up for a time slot to serve a local business or organization, fulfilling different individual needs.

Leesville Elementary School, Hot and Cold Café, White Rock Cemetery and Lynchburg Parks and Recreation were a few of the places that students spent part of their day serving by cleaning, painting, planting, mulching and much more.  Overall, Serve Lynchburg helped 76 organizations and eight businesses throughout the community. 

Mason Huffman, a freshman at Liberty, participated in Serve Lynchburg for the first time and said he didn’t know what to expect. 

“Liberty did a really good job making the whole day fun by providing games before we left for our sites and packed lunches,” he said.

His group was deployed to Jefferson Park, where they spent a few  hours walking around the park and surrounding community picking up and disposing of garbage.

“It felt good to help out but what felt the best was having members of the community stop and talk to us,” Huffman said. “They were very appreciative of us and what Liberty does to try and help Lynchburg.”

Lauren Kennedy, a sophomore at Liberty, also took part in Serve Lynchburg for the first time. She
went to an organization called Cornerstone Property Owners. There, her group was given the task of helping to clean and set up around the pool and other parts of the property as well.

Serving at Cornerstone impacted Kennedy, raising her awareness of those in need around her.

“It was really cool because I didn’t go with anyone I knew,” Kennedy said. “It was really nice to just get to know people and people I never would have seen or known before.”

Lauren Shank is a News Reporter. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenmshank.