On Monday, Jan. 15, the Rowan Museum was fortunate to have seven Catawba College students give us their holiday — their day of no classes, when they could have slept late and enjoyed a lazy, beautiful day — by committing themselves to helping an agency in their adopted community. All the guys and gals who volunteered with us were from out of state or other areas of North Carolina. (So of course we couldn’t resist giving them some historical background).

The students met me at the museum in town, got an introduction to the museum and our sites, and we then headed out to our 1766 site: the Old Stone House. For hours, these students worked so very hard, digging, raking, hauling tree limbs, cutting vines and roots and a whole lot more back- breaking work. They got filthy, probably got blisters and never complained. When the gals uncovered the first snake of the season in the cemetery, they only paused briefly, to let us relocate it, and then went right back to work.

When Catawba College called me and asked if we could use some help, of course I immediately said “yes.” As a private, non-profit organization, we use as many volunteers as we can get and are so very thankful for them.

All 40 students from Catawba who went into our community on Martin Luther King Day and met the MLK Challenge certainly stepped up as student leaders and future leaders in their own communities, and they made a difference in Salisbury and Rowan. For that, the Rowan Museum and the other agencies who received help are most grateful.

— Kaye Brown Hirst

Salisbury

Editor’s note: Kaye Brown Hirst is executive director of Rowan Museum, Inc.