Maryville College alumni and friends are doing good here in Blount County and across the world as part of the fourth annual KT Global service event this month.
They are building a playground in Ghana, holding a food drive in Ireland, cleaning up a park in Chicago, landscaping at a school in Knoxville and much more.
Monday, MC alumni joined with Maryville Rotary members at a Habitat for Humanity build in Alcoa. Rick Zielger, Class of 1970, was working with his MC roommate W.N. “Dub”Osborne and others who have remained close over the years.
In the past Ziegler had participated in a Cades Cove cleanup during KT Global. This year he was able to serve both the college initiative and the Rotary group, with which he plans to become more involved.
Kin Takahashi
KT Global is one of several ways MC current students, alumni, faculty and staff honor the legacy of Kin Takahashi, Class of 1895. The campus gained both football and Bartlett Hall through his initiatives. He raised the money and organized the student workers who made the bricks for the building. And he was a player, captain and coach for the first football teams at Maryville.
In June, many alumni will return to campus for KT Days, giving their time and effort to improve the campus with projects such as painting, planting, power washing, light construction and more.
The Maryville College Alumni Association board organized KT Global for alumni who want to give but can’t return to East Tennessee.
Ziegler said he knew who Kin Takahashi was when he was a student but learned more about his contributions later when he worked for the college. He told The Daily Times that KT Days and KT Global are “a terrific tribute to Kin Takahashi.”
They also honor the motto of the college’s founder, the Rev. Isaac Anderson: “Do good on the largest possible scale.”
Expanding
“We are thrilled to see KT Global continue to expand in its fourth year,” Jennifer Phillips Triplett, director of the MC Office of Alumni Affairs, which organizes KT events alongside the MCAA, said in a news release. “This alumni-driven initiative began as a way to connect alumni, no matter where they live, in this spirit of service we learned from the legacy of Kin Takahashi.”
“After graduation, so many alumni have found their vocation in service, thanks to the influence and their time at Maryville College,” added Melissa Kiewiet, Class of 2014, KT Global taskforce co-chair and a leader of the Tri-State Scots alumni chapter in the Northeastern United States. “KT Global is another way to honor that influence by creating positive changes in our own home communities while representing Maryville College.”
Participants can sign up via the KT Global page on the MC website, https://bit.ly/KTGlobal2024.
Some projects allow volunteers to serve remotely and on their own time. For example, they can assist MC Archivist Amy Lundell by transcribing documents to make the college’s historical collections accessible online, or pack bags with snacks, small hygiene items and encouraging notes for children whose families are experiencing homelessness, a project for Family Promise led by Rachel Rushworth-Hollander, from the Class of 2008.
The MCAA board is calling on alumni to stock the Scots Supplies Closet, a campus resource providing students clothing, hygiene products and various other items at no cost, which they can do from anywhere with the Scots Supplies Closet Amazon wishlist. Locally, items can be delivered to Room 327 of Bartlett Hall during normal business hours.
Organizers hope to maintain the momentum that saw KT Global increase in participation from 2021, when 239 volunteers in 26 cities and Japan signed up in its first year, to 2023, when 360 participants tackled 42 projects in five countries.
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