Published: June 04, 2008 04:31 pm            

Girl leads volunteer work on campus

On Sunday morning, while most college students are still in bed, Jenna Walls of Zionsville is volunteering at the nursery of the Trinity United Methodist Church in Lexington, Va. She’s been volunteering at the nursery every Sunday since the spring of her freshmen year at Washington and Lee University in Lexington. Now a junior, Walls said she still plans on volunteering at the nursery next year.

“Service has always been a big part of my life,” Walls said. While living in Tennessee as a child, she and her sister started a fund to save black bears in the area. After moving to Zionsville, Walls was head of the leadership council during her senior year at University High School In Carmel. Due to the big emphasis on service at her school, she was working on a service project at least every month, if not more.

From the beginning of her college career, Walls has been extremely involved in W&L’s Nabors Service League, a student-run community service organization named after Jonathan O. Nabors, a W&L student who was killed in a car accident in 1999 during both his and Walls’ freshmen year. The organization’s mission embodies Nabors’ compassionate spirit.

Walls became the Health and Disability Chair her sophomore year. In this position, she was able to work with the Rockbridge Area Occupational Center in Lexington, which provides employment for adults with disabilities.

This year, Walls increased her role in the organization by becoming one of two general co-chairs. “The supervisor of the Occupational Center was crushed when she found out Walls wasn’t the Disability Chair anymore,” said Aubrey Shinofield, W&L’s service learning coordinator. Shinofield worked closely with Walls throughout her career in Nabors. She describes Walls as someone who is organized, takes initiative and has tons of energy. “Walls arrived at W&L with community service as a part of who she is,” Shinofield said.

As general chairwoman of Nabors, Walls is in charge of contacting groups, both off-campus agencies and on-campus student groups, to get them involved in community service. For one of Nabors’ bigger projects — Nabors Service Day — she led in April a group of four students to the Magnolia Center, a day center for the elderly in Buena Vista, Va. The group spent the day cleaning the area and fixing it up for the Rockbridge County citizens who regularly attend the center.

Besides her involvement in Nabors, Walls is also bringing community service to her Pi Beta Phi sorority sisters. As sorority president, she identifies potential community service projects for the sorority’s philanthropy chair. Walls and the sorority are planning a car wash with another sorority on campus, Kappa Kappa Gamma, to benefit the Lexington-based Rockbridge Area Transportation System. RATS provides rides for the elderly and disabled Rockbridge County citizens. She also plans to have her sorority, along with Kappa, visit an elementary school in Rockbridge County where they will read to the students.

As for next year, Walls is already working on plans to make Nabors bigger and better. Along with Shinofield, she wants to make the organization four times the size it is now by recruiting as many students as possible.

“We want to reach out to Greek organizations and athletic teams,” Walls said. She also hopes to double the size of Nabors’ annual “alternative break” trips. This past spring, Nabors’ volunteers went to Charlotte, N.C., and worked with local organizations to address the issue of homelessness. Volunteers have also gone to Houston, Philadelphia and New Orleans. Next year, the program takes students to Birmingham, Jonathan Nabors’ hometown.

What’s next for Walls’ community service career? “We’ll see,” she said. “I’ve always been one to have a hard time saying ‘no,’ especially when community service comes around.”

Ashley Milligan is a journalism student at Washington and Lee University.

        

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