Josh Redden
Reporter

February 17, 2006

Parents and students agree that the Fun Facts Tour of Milligan College turned out to be very entertaining and informative.

With a dry run of the tour on Feb. 9 and two tours on the Saturday afternoon of Family Weekend, altogether 20 students and parents participated in John Wakefield’s tour.

“The tour was very interesting with lots of information that we hadn’t heard on the Connections tour,” said Betty Kiebler, mother of freshman Katie Kiebler. “The tour guide was very entertaining.”

Katie’s father, John Kiebler, agreed. “I love history,” he said, “and listening to some of the stories and history of this campus was very fun.”

Starting at the SUB , the tour went to the Hyder House, the tennis courts, Phillips House, Married Student Apartments, Hart Hall, Steve Lacy Fieldhouse, Sutton Hall, Pardee Lawn, Seeger Chapel, Welshimer Library, the president’s house (Little Hartland), Hopwood Memorial Christian Church, Derthick Hall and finished at Williams' Cemetery, located behind the Baker Faculty Office Center.

Throughout the tour, Wakefield entertained the group with trivia and wild stories of Milligan’s past, including the history of buildings and stories of important figures.

“All the bologna you will hear on this tour is true bologna,” Wakefield said jokingly to break the ice as he began the tour.

 “It is nice to see how some of the history of Milligan has carried on” said Steve Graham, father of junior Meghan Graham. “It was very interesting.”

Wakefield said he had the idea for a campus history tour for a long time. 

“I really think it would be ideal for Homecoming weekend where past alumni and current students can really appreciate the stories and history that have happened here,” Wakefield said.

“The campus looked very pretty with the light snow cover said sophomore Abby Dalton.  “I would encourage all my friends and their parents to attend the tour next year.”

Senior Stephanie Dalton drove the van while Wakefield talked.

“I would do the team Wakefield-Dalton anytime,” Dalton said. “I really enjoyed working with Mr. Wakefield.” 

Wakefield and Dalton practiced the tour on Thursday afternoon.

“The tour went how I liked,” Wakefield said.  “It went smoother each time we did the tour.”

Despite snowy conditions, 60 families arrived on campus last weekend to participate in this year’s Family Weekend. Activities were planned by the Student Government Association’s sophomore class representatives.

The weekend’s main events began on Saturday morning with registration and the Dean’s List ceremony and reception. Families were then invited to eat brunch in the cafeteria and take an afternoon historical tour of the campus.

Sophomore class president Jackie Libby said the tour was a new event this year. John Wakefield, associate professor of music, researched, wrote and led the tour.

“I have had the idea to do this for a long time, so I had been collecting stories for quite a while,” Wakefield said.

He said the tour was more successful than he expected, as two van loads of parents and students participated. Wakefield said the tour is worth doing again in the future.

“Students and parents alike said it was interesting and entertaining,” Wakefield said. “Fun and interesting stories about Milligan College help people associate with the campus in a casual and upbeat way.”

Families also had the opportunity to see both the women’s and men’s basketball teams play on Saturday afternoon in an Appalachian Athletic Conference game against Montreat College. The games were originally scheduled for Saturday night, but the times were changed due to snow.

According to Libby, the time changes were not a problem for the weekend’s plans. Information given to parents merely had to be changed, but the snow did not appear to cause any more disruption in the weekend’s activities.

Ten more families registered this year than last year.

“We were really disappointed when the snow was coming, but we still got 60 families,” Libby said. She considered the weekend to be “pretty successful” overall.

Milligan ended Family Weekend’s events Saturday night with a performance by the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra and an Open Mic night at SUB7.

Freshman Chris Well’s family attended Open Mic Night to listen to him perform. Wells said it was great having his family and girlfriend there from Maryland.

He played the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Slide” at the request of his brother, and his mom was especially happy to be there. Hearing him play is “one of her favorite things.”

Every year, Family Weekend provides parents the opportunity to spend time with their children between the beginning of the semester and spring break.

Freshman Josh Wright’s parents, Sidney and Nancy Wright, came from Maryland to spend the weekend. Nancy Wright said Family Weekend is helpful to parents who go months without seeing their children during spring semester.

“I think they mainly do it for the parents so I won’t be up in my house going crazy,” she said. Josh Wright, however, had different ideas about the time spent with his parents.

“I think it’s a good time for kids to stock up on food using their parents’ money,” he said. “It was nice to see my parents and get away from Milligan food.”