The campus ministries of the University of Tennessee at Martin are spreading some holiday cheer to the less fortunate of West Tennessee this season.

Students at the Church of Christ Student Center, Interfaith Student Center, Baptist Student Union, and the Reformed University Fellowship are donating their time and effort to ensure a happy holiday season for those in need.

For the past six years the Church of Christ Student Center has been taking mission trips to Panama City Beach, Fla. during the holidays.

Campus Minister Brian Stephens explained that the trip lasts six days and the students do many projects to help members of the community.

“We usually spend two days raking leaves for the elderly in Panama City. Then we spend another day helping at the Panama City Rescue mission. We clean up the thrift store, organize new shipments, and serve in the soup kitchen. The remainder of our time is spent door knocking for a local church,” said Stevens.

“I think any kind of extended service trip brings the group so much closer together. In small service groups, we begin bonding, and others see that. This has a big impact on the ones serving as well as the ones being served.”

In addition to the mission trip, the Church of Christ Student Center also visits Pinevale Children’s Home in Corinth, Miss., every year during late November. Stevens said the students hang out with the children and do anything that needs to be done at the home. Some of the students also put together some funds and purchase Christmas gifts for children at the West Tennessee Children’s home.

Interfaith Student Center is also busy during the holiday season. This campus ministry is a cooperative one between the United Methodist, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian U.S.A., Cumberland Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches.

Interfaith Director Bill Mulroy explained that each year the center has a block party to help We Care stock their shelves for Thanksgiving and Christmas. “We call it the block party because the idea behind it is to block the Chancellor’s driveway with food,” said Mulroy.

Basically, student organizations compete to see which one can raise the most food. This year the competition was held during early November. 12 student organizations got involved and raised a total of 6,000 pounds of food.

Alpha Tau Omega was the winner of the competition with a total of 1,574 pounds of food. Other organizations involved were Zeta Tau Alpha, Gamma Kappa Pi, Alpha Omicron Pi, Kappa Alpha Order, Gamma Beta Phi, Chi Omega, Institute of Accountants Management, Alpha Delta Pi, Phi Khi Zeta, Leaders in Residence, and the Shape Club. Mulroy also said that individuals from the faculty and staff at UTM made contributions.

“We do work for We Care year round, but this event really helps them out. They need a lot of food to give to those in need during the holidays and we help them do it,” said Mulroy.

“It has been a really successful event over the past eight years. I dare say that this center has collected about 20 to 25 thousand pounds of food for We Care.”

Interfaith also collects shoes for orphans during the holiday season in addition to the block party.

The Baptist Student Union also helps with We Care during the holiday season. Community Missions Coordinator Cori Beth Sutton said the center is collecting Christmas gifts for teenagers this holiday season.

“We sent letters out to all the student organizations on campus this year to try to get them involved in the project,” she said. “This is the first year we are doing this. Basically we are trying to organize all the student organizations and get as much stuff to donate as possible.”

Like Interfaith and the Baptist Student Union, The Reformed University Fellowship is also planning to donate items to We Care. Campus Minister Nathan Tircuit said students will be encouraged to donate toys this holiday season.

“Christmas is a good reminder of the giving we should be doing year round,” he said.

Area churches sponsor the campus ministries at UTM.