TCL’s Day of Service honors veterans, their families

Austin Horne and Paul Hurtt were busy calling out Bingo numbers under a large tent set up on the Technical College of the Lowcountry’s campus on Saturday.

“What’s next?” someone called as the two former U.S. Army specialists kept track of what had been called.

“Alright, hold on,” Horne said, as everyone laughed.

It was all part of the fun at the college’s Day of Service held on the school’s Beaufort campus Saturday afternoon.

Hosted by the college and the college’s Student Veterans of America chapter the event featured a free barbecue lunch with fun and games for veterans and their families.

About 400 people turned out for the event, part of Serve South Carolina’s Day of Service, a statewide initiative of the Leadership South Carolina Class of 2016.

For their Day of Service, local organizers decided to honor veterans and schedule their own event around Armed Services Day and Memorial Day, said Christina Welsch-Copeland, director for the college’s Veteran Student Services program and a former U.S. Army field artillery sergeant and radar technician herself.

The Day of Service, which also included a free car wash for veterans the day before, is a way of showing veterans and their families appreciation, she said. It’s also a natural extension of the program’s new resource center, which opened on the campus last fall on Veterans Day.

“What we do is help veterans transition from military life to college life,” she said.

For Horne and Hurtt, who now serve as president and vice president respectively of the college’s SVA chapter, the new resource center has been a place to “get a cup of coffee” and share mutual experiences.

“Whether that’s in the classroom or in the military,” Horne said.

And events like Saturday’s Day of Service now gives them and others in the group a chance to pass along the support they’ve found in each other to other veterans in the greater Beaufort County community.

“Whether veterans or not, giving back is part of the SVA,” Horne said.

This story was originally published May 21, 2016 at 7:18 PM with the headline "TCL’s Day of Service honors veterans, their families."