On Tuesday, July 14, Welch College faculty, staff, students, and administration gathered with alumni, denominational leaders, friends, and members and representatives of the Gallatin and Sumner County government and community to celebrate the groundbreaking of Welch College’s Gallatin campus. Due to weather issues, the event was held at Station Camp High School. Attendance totaled close to 350.
Speakers at the event included Gallatin Mayor Paige Brown and Keith Burden, executive secretary of the National Association of Free Will Baptists. Mayor Brown graciously welcomed the Welch College family to the Gallatin community and expects a great relationship between the college and the community moving forward. Burden highlighted the long journey to this point reminding listeners that those things that come quick and easy rarely produce the level of appreciation and satisfaction found in things that require patience and hard work. He praised Welch College’s long history of producing students to take leadership positions in the Free Will Baptist denomination.
Welch President Matt Pinson also addressed attendees thanking those that laid the groundwork throughout the years to make a move possible, as well as those who continue to work to make the move a success. He invited all attendees to gather at the campus property, where Mayor Brown and Keith Burden, members of the Welch College Board of Trustees, contractor Paul Eitel of Focus Design Builders, architect Jim Sherrer of Design Development Architects, Free Will Baptist Foundation CEO David Brown, and members of the president’s Leadership Team and Relocation Task Force broke ground and posed for pictures.
Chairman of the Welch College Board of Trustees Terry Pierce closed the ceremony with prayer, asking God’s blessing on the project and dedicating the site to the Lord’s work.
The ceremony was recorded and can be viewed, along with pictures, on the college’s Facebook page. For more information about the Building on the Legacy campaign and relocation visit buildingonthelegacy.com