By Rider Farris | Reporter
More than 340 men from various organizations of the Interfraternity Council and Multicultural Greek Council attended and participated in UNITE, an all-male service project. The non-chartered campus organization Brothers in Arms sponsored the event, which was held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the World Hunger Relief Farm.
The event was held to foster brotherhood among campus organizations and unify the men of Baylor under the common pursuit of Christ.
Memphis sophomore Cole Harrison, a member of the Brothers in Arms coalition, said the event was a great opportunity for men from various campus organizations to mingle and learn more about diversity, while carrying out the mission of Brothers in Arms.
“We believe that men working together is the best way to create a space for these relationships to be formed,” Harrison said. “We decided that serving together and working and actually accomplishing things together is a way that men can bond easily.”
At the World Hunger Relief Farm, volunteers worked to clear an overgrown fence line covering numerous acres and had the opportunity to work alongside notable public figures such as Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary and Baylor first gentleman Brad Livingstone.
“We helped World Hunger Relief a lot, doing some work that they would not have done otherwise for years and years and years,” Harrison said. “So, I’d say it was a striking success.”
This is the first year that this project had been undertaken. Harrison said the outcome of the event has him hopeful that similar events will be held in the future.
“It’s very new; I think it’s being pretty well done,” Harrison said. “It’s pretty professional, I think, for the newness of it. I’d love for it to be a yearly thing.”
Carpentersville, Ill., sophomore Cameron Wilson, member of IFC fraternity Delta Tau Delta and participant in the event, said he enjoyed seeing the unification of the volunteers to help the World Hunger Relief Farm and carrying out the vision of Brothers in Arms.
“What was awesome to see was guys from my chapter, Delt [Delta Tau Delta], coming together with various other chapters to accomplish the overall mission of Brothers in Arms of embodying one in Christ and exemplifying the idea of being brothers in Christ,” Wilson said.
Volunteers were split up by numbers upon arrival to the farm and were encouraged to get to know one another by team leaders. They had the opportunity to hear the gospel and to interact with each other while conducting work for World Hunger Relief.
“It’s been a grassroots movement of the men of Baylor to say, ‘I don’t care who you are or what you’re a part of, I’m going to love you anyway,’” Harrison said. “I think it needs to come within the community, otherwise it’s another ‘Baylor thing.’”
