The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) will conduct its 27th annual national food drive on Saturday, May 11. The Stamp Out Hunger® Food Drive, the country’s largest single-day food collection event, provides residents with an easy way to donate food to those in need in the community.

Customers simply leave their donation of non-perishable goods next to their mailbox before the delivery of the mail on Saturday, May 11. Letter carriers will collect these food donations on that day as they deliver mail along their postal routes. In Middle and West Tennessee, the donated food will be distributed to Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee and its network of Partner Agencies throughout 46-counties, ensuring that all donated food remains in the county in which it is donated.

People are encouraged to leave a sturdy bag – paper or plastic – containing non-perishable foods such as peanut butter, canned chicken or tuna and canned fruits or vegetables. Interested individuals can contact their local post office for participation information.

The University of the South’s 2018-19 academic year comes to a close May 10, 11, and 12. A Convocation and Conferring of Degrees for the School of Theology will be held Friday, May 10; the University Baccalaureate on Saturday, May 11; and a Convocation for Conferring of Degrees for the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Letters on Sunday, May 12. All the ceremonies will be held in All Saints’ Chapel beginning at 10 a.m. and will be live-streamed for those unable to attend.

The School of Theology will confer four honorary degrees during the May 10 convocation. The Rt. Rev. Carl Walter Wright, bishop suffragan for Armed Forces and Federal Ministries of the Episcopal Church will receive an honorary degree and will preach during the service. This year’s other School of Theology honorary degree recipients are the Rev. Canon Gideon Byamugisha, the Rt. Rev. Maria Griselda Delgado, and the Rev. Canon George Frederick Dettwiller II.

During the Baccalaureate service Saturday, May 11, Roger W. Ferguson Jr., president and chief executive officer of TIAA and former vice chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors; R.F. “Roy” Foster, emeritus professor of Irish history at Oxford and professor of Irish history and literature at Queen Mary University of London; 25-year veteran of America’s space missions Matthew Golombek, a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Sherry Magill, former president and executive director of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund; and Dr. John R. Seffrin, former chief executive of the American Cancer Society, will receive honorary degrees. Seffrin will give the Baccalaureate address. 

On Sunday, May 12, a Convocation for Conferring of Degrees will be held at 10 a.m. in All Saints’ Chapel and on the Quad for the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Letters (tickets required). More than 400 students will graduate from the College, and 16 will receive master’s degrees from the School of Letters. A luncheon honoring the Class of 2019 graduates will follow.

This summer the Sewanee Black History Initiative is inviting all persons with roots in Sewanee’s black neighborhoods to participate in our community’s first-ever digitization fairs, which will be devoted to recovering, recording, and preserving the history of African-Americans on the Mountain. The fairs will be held on Memorial Day (Monday, May 27) and Friday, July 5, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days, at the St. Mark’s Community Center on Alabama Avenue in Sewanee.

Digitization fairs offer several ways to preserve the historical record in digital form. We invite all persons with roots in Sewanee’s black community to bring with them their memories, stories, and personal keepsakes—photographs, scrapbooks, postcards and letters, family Bibles, school records and yearbooks, trophies and diplomas—anything that reflects life in Sewanee in years past.

A team of present and former residents, university students, and staff will use scanners and cameras to make digital copies of their collections. Participants will not lose possession of their personal keepsakes. In fact, they get to keep their original materials and receive a free digital copy of them on a USB drive, which will be theirs to share with anyone they wish.

There will also be an oral history booth where participants can share their Sewanee stories about their grandparents, parents, siblings, and others and preserve those stories for generations to come. The Initiative team members will lead walks through the St. Mark’s neighborhood and lunch will be served to all participants.

Finally, participants also can ensure that future generations will remember Sewanee’s African-American history by donating a digital copy of their historic memorabilia to a new community digital archive dedicated to collecting, preserving, and honoring the history of the African-Americans who helped to make Sewanee a thriving and prosperous community.

For many generations the black residents of the Mountain were centrally important members of this community. They worked in the buildings of the University of the South and its academy, cooked meals for its students, and kept the homes and children of the town’s white residents. African-Americans built strong, family-centered neighborhoods and supported their own church and school. The African-American population in Sewanee once numbered in the hundreds. Sewanee—the university and the town—thrived because of their contributions. But today, as older residents have passed and younger generations have left for opportunities elsewhere, many fewer African-Americans live on the Mountain. The school, church, and many of their homes have been bulldozed. As a result, the record and memory of their lives and experiences and of how they helped shape the University and the community surrounding it are in danger of disappearing.

The members of the group organizing the events are: Shirley Taylor (Sewanee), James “Jimmy” Staten (Belvidere), Carl Hill (McMinnville), Sandra Davis Turner (Sewanee), Elmore Torbert, Jr. (Tullahoma), Jackie Duncan (Tullahoma), Doug Cameron (Sewanee), Tanner Potts (Sewanee), Robert Lamborn (Sewanee), Hannah Pommersheim (Sewanee), Nicky Hamilton (Sewanee), Sarah Sherwood (Sewanee), and Woody Register (Sewanee).

The Sewanee Black History events are sponsored by the Project on Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation, a program launched by the University of the South to study and make known its historic entanglements with slavery and slavery’s legacies. The digitization fairs are made possible by a Common Heritage grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional support comes from the university’s Gerald Smith Experiential Learning Fund and the McCrickard Faculty Development Fund.

For more information, a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SewaneeBlackHistory/ describes the activities. Community members can reach the Initiative by email sewaneeblackhistory@gmail.com or by phone (931) 598-1085.

The Sewanee Gardeners’ Market, open every Saturday morning, 8–10 a.m., in the summer, will have its opening day Saturday, May 25. The Market is located on Highway 41A, next to Hawkins Lane and the Mountain Goat Trail. 

Locally grown vegetables,flowers, plants, homemade items and meat are available from area folks. 

Sparkle Week is spring cleaning for residents inside the Monteagle city limits. Deadline is May 12. All items/trash/debris should by placed on the side of the road by this deadline so city workers can pick it up. Please, no tires or batteries.

The Hospitality Shop is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. It is located at 1096 University Ave. The shop is currently having a huge half-price sale with almost every item in the store at half the marked price. The Shop will close at 1 p.m., Saturday, May 11 and will reopen May 28 with summer inventory and other surprises.