by Rev. Bill Barnes

Belmont’s Communion offering, at both services on February 7, was dedicated to the O.N.E./Barnes Scholarships benefiting students from the Edgehill community who are attending higher education institutions. The amount donated totaled $4,845. We of the scholarship committee are grateful to the congregation for its generosity and, of course, to Pastor Ken Edwards for allowing us a brief time in the services to present the need and performance of the program. In our seventeen-year history, we have been able to provide over a quarter of a million dollars to help aspiring Edgehill folks go to college. Not only has Belmont helped with dollars, but it has provided volunteers as partners to the students and as members of our ongoing oversight committee. Thanks again!

A dramatic example of the depth of our relationship occurred on the afternoon of March 12, 2010, at Belmont. A memorial service was held for Dr. Jewell Phelps, who was a partner (adult mentor) to Sherleta (Lee Lee) Crockett Sanders, now a public school teacher. During her four years as a student at Belmont University, the two of them would meet once or twice a week at IHOP, when it was near Vanderbilt, to go over her tests and term papers. She graduated with honors. It was a lasting model of what our student/partner relationships could be and should be. Lee Lee movingly expressed her gratitude at the memorial service. One more way Belmont UMC has greatly enriched students from the Edgehill community!