Baccalaureate Underscores the Importance of Faith and Service in McCallie Men

“Nah,” said his buddy. “You’re definitely coming with us.”

 

Tremain reluctantly relented and soon found himself at the entry to faculty member Will Givens’ apartment in South Hutch dorm where he was greeted with a wide smile, a warm hug, and a plate of carrot cake, as he had many times before.

 

“It reminded me that I’m a friend, never a stranger,” said Tremain of the greeting. “It reminded me that God gave us one another for a reason. My faith is not supposed to be a solo, gritty, grind. Whatever race we’re running, we need a strong community behind us. We need to pursue and cultivate relationships.”

 

If Tremain’s address was eloquent beyond his years, Elijah Cooper’s time at the podium was no less memorable for the stories he told of student service throughout his four years on the Ridge. Cooper recently won the Campbell Award, the school’s second-highest leadership honor, and he has immersed himself in a variety of service opportunities since he first arrived on campus, as well as lending his beautiful voice to VoCallie, Candlelight and Whirlwind, and his throwing skills to Ultimate Frisbee.

 

“Service to others is one of McCallie’s core tenets,” Cooper said. “It prepares every generation of McCallie men to devote their entire lives to service and continue to help people in any and all ways that they can.”

 

Over the past year alone, Cooper said that included 58 hours of service at the Community Kitchen serving breakfast to the homeless at 6 a.m. on Tuesdays. It included buying Christmas presents for 47 children through Angel Tree and Bethel Bible Village. It included helping out widows in their homes every Saturday morning with tasks great and small. It included placing wreaths on grave sites at the National Cemetery during the Christmas season. And, lastly, this past year, it included McCallie students donating 200 hours of service to help build four Habitat for Humanity homes.

 

“And every single student had to be involved,” noted Cooper. “There wasn’t any standing around by anyone. It was a complete team effort. If anyone had any personal differences with anyone else, they put them aside for the good of the team.”

 

In many ways Baccalaureate is the calm before the storm, a quiet, spiritual event within the walls of the McCallie Chapel less than 16 hours before the pomp and circumstance of Commencement exercises begin in Spears Stadium. It is a final time to reflect deeply on the school motto “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever,” sing such hymns as “Faith of Our Fathers,” led by the matchless voice of choral director James Harr, and be touched by the harmonies of the VoCallie choir.

 

But as Tremain wrapped up his remarks, he couldn’t quite escape that Tuesday night in Givens’ apartment, of the friendship and fellowship on display around a plate of carrot cake.

 

“In a way, that night was the story of our entire class,” Tremain said. “Over the years we’ve carried each other in victories and failures. We’ve shared laughter, loss, pressure, growth. But that night in Mr. Givens’ apartment was actually a picture of the body of Christ. It looks like people making room for one another. It looks like hospitality. It looks like presence.”

 

“So as we leave here, let us fight to keep our family thick, let us fight for a loving community, let us fight for friendships rooted in truth.”

 

To do so is to remind those around you that they are always friends, never strangers.

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Read Brooks Tremain’s Speech