Several thousand guests will also be a boon to Columbia-Adair County economy.
COLUMBIA, KY. (05/13/2025) No sooner had the final chair been put in storage in Biggers Sports Center and the last discarded commencement program had been picked up and tossed into a garbage bin did Lindsey Wilson College employees turn their attention toward the summer months to prepare for several thousand visitors to Columbia-Adair.
More than a dozen major events are scheduled for this summer at the college, including athletic and theater camps, meetings and conferences of civic groups and religious organizations, and a couple gatherings of rising student leaders from the region’s schools.
“We have an array of groups who will be on campus this summer,” said Lindsey Wilson Director of Student Activities Stephanie Blackwood, who helps plan, coordinate and accommodate events for campus visitors. “We’re pretty open to working with everyone and anyone we can, and we look for every way to accommodate them and their needs.”
Economic impact
The college also started the summer with more than 180 students living on campus for a variety of reasons — members of spring sports teams, student-teachers finishing out the school year, and students who chose to take summer classes on campus.
Including family members and friends who will accompany some campus visitors, Blackwood expects more than 2,000 people to be on campus this summer. Combined with another 1,000 people who will participate in events held at the Doris and Robert Holloway Health & Wellness Center and the incoming Lindsey Wilson students and their family members who will attend one of the five new student orientation days, the Columbia-Adair County economy should receive a significant shot in the arm this summer.
“It definitely adds up, between our summer students and guests,” said Blackwood. “They all spend their money at restaurants, at stores and at area hotels.”
A recent economic impact study commissioned by the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges found that Lindsey Wilson contributes nearly $100 million annually to the Columbia-Adair County economy.
Summer sports
Director of Campus Recreation Tori Starks and her staff are ready for the summer athletic camps to start in early June in the Holloway Health & Wellness Center. In addition to the usual offering of basketball, soccer, swim and volleyball camps, this summer’s athletic events will include a cheerleading combine that is expected to attract a large number of spirit makers from throughout the region.
“We have a very full schedule, all of which will contribute to a lot of activity on campus and in the community,” said Starks.
Starks said that summer is also a popular season for area residents to hold birthday and pool parties in the Holloway Health & Wellness Center.
“We’ll definitely have our share of birthday parties in the summer in the Holloway Center,” she said. “They are very popular because we have a room right next to the recreational pool, which makes things very convenient.”
The campus visitors Blackwood will work with, which will include the Center for Rural Development’s Rogers Scholars and Rogers Explorers from the region’s schools, will make use of the college’s classroom buildings, residence halls and of course the Robert D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center.
“Sometimes it can get a little bit crazy because we have constant movement in our office with so many things being held all over campus,” said Blackwood. “But it’s really a lot of fun. I love the chaos.”
For some of this summer’s campus visitors, it will be the first time they will have visited Columbia-Adair County.
“We will have a lot of people who will come to campus in the summer and say, ‘I’ve never been to Columbia or Adair County before,'” said Blackwood. “So our summer events will introduce a lot of people from Kentucky and surrounding states to our region.”
Once the summer season concludes, Blackwood and Starks will jump right into activities to kick off 2025-26 at Lindsey Wilson, the first school year as Lindsey Wilson University. And right after they get finished helping plan and execute Welcome Weekend activities on Aug. 22-23, their attention will turn toward the 2025 Homecoming Weekend, which will be held Oct. 23-25.
“I just kind of hold on from June until the end of October,” said Blackwood.
Lindsey Wilson College Director of Student Activities Stephanie Blackwood sits in front of the wall calendar that helps her stay organized during the summer months, when more than a dozen camps, conferences and meetings are scheduled to be held on campus.
Lindsey Wilson College Director of Campus Recreation Tori Starks says that the Doris and Robert Holloway Health & Wellness Center has several athletics-related events scheduled for this summer, including basketball, cheerleading, swimming and volleyball.
Lindsey Wilson College is a vibrant liberal arts college in Columbia, Kentucky. Founded in 1903 and affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the mission of Lindsey Wilson is to serve the educational needs of students by providing a living-learning environment within an atmosphere of active caring and Christian concern where every student, every day, learns and grows and feels like a real human being. Lindsey Wilson — which will become Lindsey Wilson University on July 1 — has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students, and the college offers 28 undergraduate majors, five graduate programs and a doctoral program. The college’s 28 intercollegiate varsity athletic teams have won more than 120 team and individual national championships.
(Duane Bonifer – Lindsey Wilson College)