Erskine RUF completes Camp Joy fund-raiser with Barn-K event

Despite soggy conditions brought on by a weekend of steady rain, more than 100 college students, high school visitors, and other guests came out for the final meeting of Erskine’s Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) Sunday, May 5, which began with the second annual “Barn-K” fitness event.

Erskine Chaplain Paul Patrick began the Barn-K last year, inviting students to run or walk the 3.698 miles from the Erskine campus to “The Barn” at the Patrick home just outside Due West, where RUF meets. He called the distance a “Barn-K.”

“We had 150 signed up to participate in the Barn-K this year, but the two inches of rain left us with 86 participants—walkers, joggers, runners,” Patrick said. Attendees who did not enter the Barn-K brought the numbers up for “a full Barn of 100-plus,” he added.

A highlight of the meeting was the presentation of a check to Ann Brice of Camp Joy that will enable a young man to attend the Christian special-needs camp at Bonclarken for the first time.

“Through selling boiled peanuts at the Due West Fall Festival and at the RUF BBQ and Hymn Sing and through donors for the Barn-K, we raised $1,000 for Warren Sullivan to be able to attend Camp Joy,” Patrick said.

Sullivan was on hand for the presentation, and special music for the meeting, “Jesus Loves Me” and “His Name is Wonderful,” was led by Marian Ann Blanton, with her mother serving as pianist.

A visiting high school youth group from Greenwood Presbyterian Church ran in the Barn-K, Patrick said, as did some parents.

Erskine students have been gathering at “The Barn,” located on the property where Patrick lives with his wife Marie and their four children, for supper, singing and Bible study since 2003.

More Barn-K photos are posted at the following link: http://www.flickr.com//photos/erskinecollege/sets/72157633449547035/show/