SFI, who seeks to expand local sustainability and social responsibility in food production, began in 2010 when a concerned group of students witnessed large amounts of unused cafeteria food being thrown away. This led to a food donation program, a campus composting program, the planting of campus vegetable gardens and even a student-run Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, which sold produce grown on campus to local buyers. However, when this core group of students graduated, SFI was left a ship with no captain, and its programs quickly fell into disarray.

Eshleman’s vision for the group focuses on longevity. “We are a student club,” the rising senior pointed out, “but have started to work towards being more of a coalition of local organizations and persons, to encourage better practices within our food systems, as well as helping groups fully utilize their own spaces to achieve healthier and more sustainable systems.”

Partnering on and off campus

One key to achieving this longevity is partnering with other campus organizations, such as , the and (ESW), to draw interest and forge common connections. Already this summer ESW helped the SFI crew install solar panels on the campus chicken shed to power the heat lamps that burn throughout the winter months.

“One of our visions for the next year is to share a meal made of locally grown food with as many campus groups as we can,” said Eshleman. “What better way to show people what we do, than through the food itself?”

The group also strives to promote 91����Ƶ’s mission of sustainability outside and . “We want to live the way we talk,” said Malachi Bontrager, an major. “SFI is tangible and easy to access. We can fill a need and do so conscientiously.” Such an ethos demonstrates the group’s commitment to building sustainable local communities through dedicated service.

One of SFI’s key partnerships has been with the Farm at Willow Run. The farm, located on Willow Run Road just minutes from campus, is owned by the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community (VMRC), and was once the property of former 91����Ƶ president Myron Augsburger and his wife, Esther. Tom Brenneman, the market garden coordinator at VMRC, has been working with VMRC’s dining services director Tobie Bow on a farm-to-table renaissance with the help of SFI students.

Forging real connections

Brenneman, a 1992 graduate with a degree in social work, lives at Willow Run and manages the gardens, in addition to his work with court-involved youth in the 26th District court service unit in Harrisonburg. Despite the enormity of the Willow Run project, which is now delivering produce directly to VMRC kitchens from 1.5 acres of cultivated land, Brenneman laughed when thinking back to its humble beginnings.

“I just had all this extra produce,” he said, which he then passed along to his friend and “co-conspirator” Cal Redekop, who in turn shared the produce gratis with fellow residents in Park Village from a stand at the end of his driveway. The fresh produce has been a huge hit over the past four years. Soon a formal conversation began at the invitation of the executive team of VMRC about how local produce might be brought directly into dining services with sourcing from its own land and resources.

The Farm was quickly identified as a viable location, but who would do the work of growing it? Brenneman rallied volunteer support , some with the local network, which encourages community-building through creative skills-sharing. But the project gained steam when the partnership with SFI was formed. With five to six students working three to four days a week for two to three hours a day, Willow Run is now staffed with a consistent and dedicated workforce.

Mentors help with ag-business skills

“Without the labor from SFI, this really couldn’t have happened,” said Redekop, who often works side by side with the students. “The Farm at Willow Run really provides almost unlimited opportunity to bring different generations together around common concerns, like how we raise our food or how we might show better reverence toward the earth.”

“The farm-to-table initiative makes good sense for VMRC,” said Judith Trumbo, VMRC president and CEO. “As an advocate for aging well, VMRC continues to identify ways to help people live healthier lifestyles. We are pleased to have the support of 91����Ƶ students to make the farm a success.”

Along the way, the members of SFI have learned valuable lessons, not only about large-scale gardening, but also about how to keep their vision afloat. The opportunity to learn from local farmers such as Radell Schrock, a 2001 graduate who operates in Harrisonburg, has given SFI members a clearer sense of the realities of what they are attempting to accomplish.

“Effectively we’re running a small business,” said SFI treasurer and nursing major Abe Thorn. It’s an experience the group will carry with them long after they have left 91����Ƶ, and a legacy they hope to leave behind for future generations of students.

The auction, which begins at 1 p.m. on Thomas Plaza in front of the Campus Center, has been organized “in the spirit of the 1969 student library drive,” when the entire campus community, galvanized by student enthusiasm, . By doing so, they protected a major construction grant for the , still in use today, and won glowing national headlines ($111,000 in 1969 would be worth well over $700,000 today).

Equipment from the Science Center, including eight microscopes (both full-size and miniature; most in their original wooden cases), will headline the auction, led by local auctioneer John Bowman.

One unique item will entitle the new owner to tell a funny story: Years ago, the planners of a donor appreciation dinner purchased what they assumed were “rosebud glasses” to garnish each table, emblazed with the blue seal of Eastern Mennonite College and Seminary. As it turned out, they had actually bought shot glasses.

Other items up for auction from the science center include ten of the greenhouse’s best plants, assorted science glassware (perfect for flower vases), two Margaret Gehman paintings, a hand thrown ceramic bowl by Jerry Lapp, an Esther Augsburger statue entiteld Robe of God and an astronomy course packet, including star charts, from the M.T. Brackbill era.

“It’s been great having the support of the development office, Science Center faculty and staff,” said SGA co-president Christine Baer, one of the auction’s organizers.

Organizers hope drive becomes template for future

Co-president Carissa Harnish said planners have been inspired by the 1969 campus-wide library fund drive since last fall.

“Organizing this drive has been a learning process,” Harnish said. “We’ve never done an auction on this scale before. Hopefully, this can be a template for student campaigns of the future.”

Also to be auctioned are donated items, including two nights’ lodging at a “tranquility guest suite” east of Harrisonburg and a copy of professor ’s recent book, Pickups, a Love Story. A “marketplace” of other items, including baked goods, will be for sale as well.

A matching grant will magnify the SGA’s fundraising efforts. For every $2 raised, an additional $1 will be added by the Marietta McNeill Morgan and Samuel Tate Morgan Foundation. A personalized letter has been sent to parents and families of students, announcing the student-initiated campaign and the matching grant.

“We’re delighted that SGA has taken the lead in mobilizing student support for the Suter Science Campaign,” says , vice president for advancement. “Students have expressed keen interest in this campaign since its inception, and it’s great that the student government leaders have stepped up to engage the larger student body in the effort.”

Fundraising efforts focus on west wing of science center

The has reached and exceeded its initial $7 million goal to modernize the laboratory section of the building, built in the late 1960s.

Bringing the west wing into the 21st century is the focus of current fundraising efforts. This involves demolishing and replacing S-104 (known as the “head room” for its array of antlered trophies) and upgrading ancient HVAC systems.

“During our student years, this is our home,” says Baer. “When we learned from development that we could designate how the funds are used, that really injected additional energy into the campaign.”

Replacing all the chairs in the large auditorium S-106 with more comfortable seating is one idea, albeit an ambitious one. Other possibilities have been discussed, including an outdoor amphitheater classroom, equipment purchase or front entrance landscaping.

As part of this discussion, “the students are interested in how buildings change the campus,” Harnish says. “We’re here for a few short years. It’s good to know that people are thinking and planning for the future.”

In the ramp-up for the auction weekend, SGA launched several student awareness events. Before the latest Hunger Games movie screened in S-106 in early March, students were treated to a “fun science” culinary experiment – ice cream made using liquid nitrogen instead of ice.

Updates on the student science center campaign can be found on its , as well as a link to a secure online form for making a financial gift to the student campaign. For more information on remote bidding on the day of the auction, call Phil Helmuth, executive director of development, at 540-746-2068.

If it rains, the auction will move inside to the upper level of University Commons.

“It may at first sound strange to you,” he told students, faculty and others at an academic forum in the , “but the more I learned about Jesus the more he seemed like an Indian spiritual leader or a medicine man to me.”

Woodley, professor of faith and culture at George Fox Seminary in Portland, Ore., spoke at 91����Ƶ’s annual Augsburger Lecture Series on Christian evangelism and mission.

In 28 years of Christian ministry among Native Americans, Woodley has seen their core values of harmony and balance in similar light to the Christian concept of shalom. He chose this as the subject of his doctoral dissertation from Asbury Seminary. “Shalom is woven into the very fabric of being indigenous,” he said.

“Shalom is a lot more than peace,” Woodley said at the university chapel service in Lehman Auditorium, where he also spoke during his visit. “It’s the way God designed the world to be – one community, embracing all creation.” The more he studied the concept of shalom in the Bible and in church history, however, the more he came to believe that Christians have fallen short in practicing true shalom.

Early missionaries devastated indigenous cultures

The first Christian missionaries to Native American communities, for example, held Western colonialist attitudes about conquering non-Christian lands and “civilizing the savages.” They had little awareness that their ideas and actions were devastating to indigenous cultures, Woodley said. Nor did they consider that God might already have been working among indigenous people.

“Theologically and missiologically, we should always begin by asking in what ways God is already active in the culture,” he said. “Native American values include an already-present relationship with the Creator. And Christians, at least first-century Christians, believed Christ is already present in the culture via his work as Creator.”

Woodley said shalom is antithetical to most American values. “Shalom is cooperation above competition and community above the individual,” he said.

“I am urging Americans to live out Christ’s values through biblical shalom and specifically through understanding the Native American harmony way,” he wrote in a scholarly paper, which he read at the academic forum.

From angry young man to missional work for shalom

Woodley began his address at the university chapel by speaking about his background and his ancestral roots in the Shenandoah Valley near the 91����Ƶ campus – both from a Cherokee tribe and a white settler community. In the 1970s, he said, he was an angry young man with a meth addiction. After he converted to Christianity and became a “flaming evangelist,” his Christian colleagues told him to ignore his Native American heritage and focus on saving “lost souls.”

As Woodley read the Bible, however, he was drawn to a broader vision, especially as he studied the Christian community that is described in the book of Acts. The early Christians followed Jesus’ teachings about shalom, which called for a different way of loving and living, and urged compassion for the poor and marginalized.

“If the church is not busy making shalom,” he said, “then it has no mission.”

Sitting in the audience at chapel were Myron and Esther Augsburger, who funded the lectureship that brought Woodley to campus. Prior to serving as president of 91����Ƶ from 1965 to 1980, Myron Augsburger was a well-known author, evangelical leader and evangelist. After he left 91����Ƶ, he and his artist wife, Esther, founded a church on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.  Before retiring to Harrisonburg, he also served as president of the Coalition of Christian Colleges & Universities.

35 years of grassroots ministry

Woodley’s theme for his Augsburger lectureship was “Embracing Missional Shalom Community.” During his visit to campus, he also spoke at the seminary chapel service and met informally with students and faculty.

For more than 35 years he has been engaged in what he calls “grassroots ministry.” He founded or helped to form Christians for Justice, Eagle’s Wings Ministry, American Indian Environment & Health Association, North American Institute of Indigenous Theological Studies, Evangelicals 4 Justice, Eloheh Village for Indigenous Leadership & Ministry Development, and Eloheh Farm.

Ordained in the American Baptist Churches, Woodley served as pastor of Eagle Valley Church in Carson City, Nev., which was for many years a unique role model as an authentic Native American congregation.

Woodley has authored Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision (2012) and Living in Color: Embracing God’s Passion for Ethnic Diversity (2004).

In addition to teaching at George Fox Seminary, he directs its intercultural and indigenous studies program.

The recognition took place during an all-school picnic Aug. 19, part of the school’s annual faculty-staff conference. Dr. Augsburger, 91����Ƶ president from 1965 to 1980, turned 80 the next day, Aug. 20.

Myron and Esther Augsburger

"I thank the Lord for each step of the way and I appreciate this surprise affirmation," Augsburger said. "The older I get, the more I realize that relationships with family, friends and colleagues and fellowship are among the most important things in life."

The former 91����Ƶ president continues an active schedule of writing and speaking in church and conference settings. He and wife Esther K. Augsburger are leaving for Croatia the end of September for a teaching assignment at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek.

Contribute to the Myron S. Augsburger Endowed Chair of Theology…

The wall behind the podium at the front of Eastern Mennonite Seminary’s Martin Chapel had been bare. Now, anyone seated in the audience is drawn to a striking palette of rich colors, swirling brush strokes and symbols.

A three-panel triptych, created by Esther K. Augsburger of Harrisonburg, was formally dedicated Jan. 22 during the closing worship service of the annual School for Leadership Training held at the seminary.

Seminary dean Ervin R. Stutzman gave a tribute to the artist prepared by 91����Ƶ provost Beryl H. Brubaker, who was unable to be present, then surprised her by announcing that Eastern Mennonite University was naming Mrs. Augsburger “distinguished artist in residence.”

The honor seeks to recognize a person “who has made significant ongoing contributions to the enrichment of the university,” Dr. Stutzman said.