Published: May 15, 2006 09:05 am      

Berea College group finishes relay

Friday celebration marks completion

BEREA — After traveling for six weeks, crossing six states and covering 1,855 miles, Berea College’s Great Commitments arrived home Friday to a celebration with music, dance, food ’ and plenty of school spirit.

Nearly 150 walkers, runners and bikers participated in the Great Commitments Relay, which toured with a commemorative copy of Berea College’s Great Commitments to celebrate the college’s 150th anniversary.

The document contains a set of eight in which Berea College commits to educating and promoting the equality of blacks, whites, men and women, to serve the Appalachian region, to stimulate understanding of the Christian faith and provide learning experiences through labor and service, among other things.

For the last leg of the leg, seven alumni, staff and friends and two of the college’s trustees biked 100 miles Thursday from Hazard to Berea in the cold wind and rain, said Amy Harmon, a gift officer for the college who traveled with the relay staff 27 out of 42 days.

Berea students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends stopped at big cities and small communities in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, including the birthplace of the college’s founder, John G. Fee, in Brooksville, Ky.

’At the home of John G. Fee we learned of Fee’s tremendous challenge to start Berea,’ Harmon said. ’He was disowned from his family, faced dangerous outside opposition, and even had a child die while fleeing from place to place during the cold months of winter. Let us not ever take for granted the sacrifice made so many years ago so that those who might not have access to a college education might find refuge here on this ridge.’

Relay participants held alumni events with more than 240 in attendance, as well as visited several civil rights and religious sites and government offices. In every stop made, hundreds of Berea alumni and friends signed the copy of the Great Commitments.

’While on the relay, we found countless connections and stories about Berea’s positive impact in the world,’ Harmon said. ’These signatures on the Great Commitments represent many of those stories, but there are still many more stories to be written.’

Wearing Berea College shirts and waving commemorative flags, those in attendance at the celebration were treated to performances by the Berea College Country Dancers and the Berea College Bluegrass Ensemble.

Stele Hinton, who graduated Berea in 1976, rode his bike from Cynthiana to Brooksville on the third day of the relay, and again Friday from McKee to Berea. Hinton said the best part of the experience was meeting new people connected to Berea and seeing old friends after a long time.

’I bike a lot, and here’s my college doing something with bikes,’ he said. ’I thought, ’Why not be part of something special’’?

Created by dean Louis Smith in 1962, the Great Commitments are ’a concise statement of who we are and who we seek to be,’ President Larry Shinn said at the relay’s opening ceremony. ’It is that document which guides the destiny of Berea College, now and in the future.’

The length of the relay corresponds to the year of Berea’s founding, 1855. For a detailed, day-to-day account of the relay, visit the relay blog at http://berearelay. blogspot.com.