Trinity University President Leads Day of Service

Volunteers at Lamar Elementary School
Photos by Sara McCarty 

By Sara McCarty

Dr. Danny Anderson, Trinity University’s new president, spent Saturday morning raking leaves and helping with landscaping at Lamar Elementary School, as part of the Trinity Gives Back community service day.

Instead of his normal attire of suit, Anderson was wearing jeans and the "uniform" of the day, a maroon Trinity Gives Back T-shirt. As soon as he arrived at the elementary school, he went straight for the gardening gloves and began raking.

Lamar Elementary, which is in Trinity’s neighborhood, is one of a dozen locations around San Antonio where volunteers, including Trinity students, faculty, staff and alumni, spent the day doing various community services.

A group of 25 volunteers came to the elementary school, where they raked leaves, laid out dirt, and picked up trash.

The service day was part of a series of events marking the inauguration of Anderson as Trinity’s 19th president, who assumed the presidency in May 2015.

Anderson said it is important for the university to give back to San Antonio, especially since the city welcomed the university when it relocated from Waxahachie, Texas in the 1940s.

Trinity President Danny Anderson with 
students Kyle Knutsen and Sam Afshari
at Lamar Elementary School

He was also impressed by the amount of people who showed up to volunteer. “I have enjoyed seeing community spirit this morning,” he said. “There were 500 people in Webster Gym,” where he welcomed all the volunteers.

Anderson, who joined Alpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity, when he was in college, understands the importance of giving back to the community. “When you think about experiential learning, there are so many ways we are translating theories into actions. And it is through service that we have many opportunities to find ways to do that,” he said.

Trinity alumnus and principal of Lamar Elementary School, Brian Sparks, greatly appreciated having volunteers at his school. He said when “organizations come together for a collectible cause, it makes it feel like the work is more doable.”

One of the volunteers at Lamar Elementary was Sam Afshari, a first-year student at Trinity University and member of the Student Government Association (SGA). “This is my first major community service project at Trinity, so I hope this opens the floodgates and allows me to go to more events in the future,” he said.