Warren Wilson Pulls on Its Overalls for Work Day 2026
Echo Editors | April 14, 2026
Warren Wilson College (WWC) students gathered outside of Gladfelter Dining Hall in the chilly early morning air on Thursday, April 9, to celebrate the college’s annual Work Day. Work Day, which sees classes cancelled and students, faculty and staff banding together to complete campus projects, highlights the spirit of community and collective action at WWC. The day ends with a barbecue feast, including a Warren Wilson pig that the Farm Crew cooked.
Ursula Curlin, a senior on the Farm Crew, serves students barbeque at Warren Wilson College (WWC) on Thursday, April 9, in Swannanoa, N.C. (Echo/Emma Taylor McCallum)
Jay Roberts, exiting provost, gave his final Work Day speech, calling on participants to enjoy their projects and the people they were working alongside, and ending with a WWC classic: the poem “To Be of Use” by Marge Piercy.
Roberts expressed his love for Work Day, sharing how he was excited to trade out his business casual for the “Warren Wilson uniform” of overalls and sneakers.
“We get a chance to stop being students, faculty and staff and administrators for the day, and we're just all workers,” Roberts said. “We're just all part of the community, getting projects done on behalf of the school. It's this beautiful combination of service, doing real work together and community building.”
Maddy Tkach, a WWC alumna and the Data & Operations Manager at the Center for Experiential Learning and Careers (CELC), has experienced Work Days as both a student and staff member. She reflected on how this changed perspective has given her a different appreciation for the tradition.
“As a student, it's a fun day, [it’s] nice to get out of class,” Tkach said. “But as a staff [member], I really enjoy how it kind of reverses hierarchy for a day. If you go to many of these projects, you'll see students telling the staff and faculty how to do things. It shows that the community isn't just from the top down all the time; we have expertise all across this community from all different people.”
Students also enjoy this reversal of hierarchy, and the opportunity Work Day presents to meet members of the campus community they would have no connections with otherwise. Emma Holland, a junior graduating in December who worked on the south slope clean-up project, was delighted by this aspect of her final Work Day.
“It's just really fun,” Holland said. “I've tried something new every [Work Day], and it's just fun to meet everyone. I've met all of the science faculty! I had no clue what any of them even looked like, but now I know them all.”
Dechen Dyson-Marshall, a sophomore on the Paint and Rentals Crew who worked on the St. Clair Guest House clean-up project, appreciated how Work Day made it possible to not only see real progress made on campus projects, but also honor the work of others.
“If we're on our individual crew throughout the years, people don't really see each other all that often, or if it's not publicized, people don't know the work that you do,” Dyson-Marshall said. “I definitely think it's a community effort to see visual change.”
Other students, like sophomore Kaia Caduff, who worked on the sign painting project for the pollinator garden, see Work Day as a way to contribute to their campus community.
“It's important to me because it's kind of a way to give back to the community,” Caduff said. “I feel like there's a lot this school gives me, and even though I already work for them, it's just a way to show up that I don't normally.”
Curran Hartzler, who co-organized and led the Free Store clean-up project, was deeply appreciative of the way their fellow students showed up to clean, organize and celebrate the Free Store.
“I'm so grateful, and I'm really amazed at seeing so many faces light up at doing this work...” Hartzler said. “I definitely had some preconceptions that made me a little nervous about being a project leader, specifically with the warehouse. After working here during the summer and having so many breakdowns as to how I was going to organize things, where things are going, and just being overwhelmed with the amount of work, it is so incredible to see this much work happen in such a short amount of time- and have it be sustainable to every individual who is a part of it.”
Work Day featured a variety of projects across four areas: Warren Wilson Entrance Projects, Garden Complex and River Projects, Central Campus Projects and North Campus Projects.
Vienna Paulsen is the crew lead of the Ceramics Crew, which had its own project on the north campus of fixing up an abandoned outdoor kiln space.
“I thought it was not going to be this rewarding, but it is,” Paulsen said on working on the project. “I'm so proud of everyone that put effort into this and has come here because this is a space we never use, and now we can use it. It's a third space, but it's also like a functional space.”
As always, there were general complaints about Work Day not being long enough or frequent enough.
“I think [Work Day] represents a way of bringing the community together,” Paulsen said. “I think it's a little deceiving calling it work day when we don't work all day. But even having this bit of time to really focus in on a project is still really helpful and rewarding.”
Greyson Hudak, who majors in Outdoor Leadership and Sustainable Agriculture, was assisting at the ceramics department in fixing up an abandoned outdoor kiln space.
“[Work Day] is a lot of fun,” Hudak said. “After all of the [projects are] done, it's almost like, ‘Wow, why do we not just get projects done all the time?’”
As Work Day drew to a close, students put the finishing touches on their projects and prepared to gather at the pavilion for a community lunch and raffle. This year's Work Day was themed Dirt Covered and Smothered, and as such, the raffle prizes had Waffle House items throughout, including an entire basket of goodies from Waffle House that former crew supervisor of dining services, Kat Laufenberg, provided.
Sawyer Kairys, who worked on the campus trash brigade, summed up the ethos of Work Day succinctly.
“I feel like it's work that, if you weren't doing it with the whole campus, would be really hard to be motivated to do...” Kairys said. “When everyone else is doing it, it’s way more cool...Shout out, community. Shout out, community service. Shout out, stewardship. Shout out, love, joy, friendship. Shout out, spring.”
(From left) freshman Penelope Edgar, sophomore Sean Coyle, sophomore Sawyer Kairys and (bottom) sophomore Nolan Brown pose for a photo at Warren Wilson College (WWC) on Thursday, April 9, in Swannanoa, N.C. (Echo/Vivian Bryan)
