8/31/2007 3:00:00 PM
Pat Whitney
Courier Staff Writer
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For the freshmen participating in their initial first-year service project, it was more than an ice-breaker into a new community; it was a chance to give back, according to Hanover College's new president, Sue DeWine, who visited the project.
"And this particular site is special to me because of my interest in the Underground Railroad and the humble people who settled here in the 1800s who made such strong statements about their beliefs against slavery," she said.
Within three hours, the eager volunteers had cleared large areas near both the college and the Lyman Hoyt House of brush, tall weeds and fallen limbs and trees. While some students washed windows and painted exterior trim, other mowed the expansive lawns and prepared newsletters from the historic sites for mailing.
"We invited the entire freshman class to attend the first-year service project, part of the August experience," said Ashley Clifford, a staff member who helps organize community service projects throughout the year. "Right off the bat, the students are given the opportunity to connect with their new community. Many of the freshmen are participating, except for athletes who are at practice and those competing in different things at school.
"The college looks for ways to extend the students' education out in the community," she said. "I'm excited to see the difference they can make."
Clifford said the college looks for locations with a big quantity of work to do.
"Eleutherian definitely qualified," she said. "Many of our students have no idea we are so close to stations on the Underground Railroad. This experience creates opportunities for faculty and staff who have connections of their own to the Underground Railroad to share their stories with the students."
The cleanup project follows completion of an $845,000 exterior restoration at Eleutherian that included installation of a new bell tower atop the multistory building. There's still much more renovation ahead for the interior, said board member Meagan Brown. Sources of new funding are being sought.
"We're getting things done that we've been unable to do all these years - jobs that only 20 people on the board couldn't do," said Jae Breitweiser, director of the Historic Eleutherian Foundation. "Think how much money the college is saving us by taking 164 people times three hours times what laborers are paid today. We are so grateful."
Staff members, faculty and upperclassmen involved with freshman orientation joined the freshmen in a variety of labor-intensive tasks.
For John Krantz, a Hanover College psychology professor, and his wife, Margaret, the Hanover career center director, being involved in the project was a chance to see firsthand the place where their students conducted a museum studies career-connection experience last year.
"We were drawn to this place because of its rich history," he said.
Historic Eleutherian College, located on State Road 250 in Lancaster, is a National Historic Landmark, Network to Freedom site and station for the Freedom Center in Cincinnati, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was the first school in the state dedicated to offering an education for all people, regardless of race or gender. The school served as a training site for soldiers in the Civil War, some of whom were students at the school. Eleutherian and the houses that surround it were stops on the Underground Railroad, offering protection to runaway slaves as well as an opportunity for education for some of them.
It was last used as a school for all people in 1888 when it was purchased by local trustees and used as a public elementary school until 1938.
The residence of Lyman Hoyt, who was a conductor on the Underground Railroad and an officer in the Neil's Creek Anti-Slavery Society, is located down the road about a quarter-mile from the college. Its visitors center is open to the public.
After David Bear, a freshman from Hanover, spent a couple of hours of cutting down and raking the waist-high brush from behind the college's visitors center, beads of sweat dotted his flushed face.
"After a late night working on papers, we would have probably been asleep now if we weren't here," he said. "It feels good to know that we are helping restore this property. I'm calling this particular project 'The Battle of the Bushes,'" he added with a hearty laugh.
Three freshmen women sat on the ground doing more tedious work sanding an old bench swing, getting it ready for a fresh coat of varnish before it could take its place hanging on the porch of the visitors center. Inside, at least a dozen volunteers ran up and down the stairs, ridding the interior of rubbish and cleaning the kitchen, bathroom and upstairs, which had seen years of neglect.
No one seemed to mind the sweltering temperatures inside or out. Few found reason to take a break with so much work to be done. An employee of the property and his wife stopped by with Popsicles to cool the hard-working group.
Megan Farris, a freshman from Cincinnati, busily scrubbed the siding on the building housing the visitors center.
"I didn't realize we would be going off campus for the project," she said. "I didn't know about all the history involved here until we came. I'm glad I can help clean it up so that more people will be able to visit this place in the future."
It took two large buses and a dozen or more cars to transport the willing volunteers. At the end of the day, the scene took on a new, refreshed look. And 165 weary workers returned to Hanover College with a sense of accomplishment, a history lesson and an experience outside the classroom as valuable as any class.
"The experience shows the students that they can continue in college the community service they did in high school," Clifford said. "Working alongside faculty and staff members also teaches them that community service is something you don't just do in school, but you do throughout your life."