Jessamine County business and government leaders and members of the Asbury Seminary joined Asbury University for its annual Chamber of Commerce President’s Breakfast on Tuesday, April 16.

The buffet breakfast was held in the university’s new Shaw Collaborative Learning Center.

The breakfast is a time for networking and for Asbury officials to inform the public about what’s been going on at the university. 

Kyle Roe, president of the Jessamine County Chamber Board of Directors, started the event, welcoming everyone on the conference room stage. 

“Thank you, Dr. Brown, for making this happen every year,” said Roe, thanking Asbury President Dr. Kevin J Brown. 

As it is an event with the goal of connection, Roe also announced several upcoming events that the chamber will be hosting, including the May 10 Taste of Jessamine event and the forthcoming Legislative Breakfast. 

To show off the new and shiny programs featured at Asbury, the next speaker was Trent Ellsworth, director of the new Kentucky Outdoor Institute at Asbury. This is new programming that has been inspired by previously existing outdoor groups like the one started by Wilmore Mayor Harold Rainwater. 

“Let us take you on a canoeing trip 15 minutes from home on the Kentucky River,” Ellsworth said. 

Jennifer McChord, the Vice President for Enrollment & Marketing, also reminded the audience of upcoming youth programming that will be hosted at Asbury for when you want your teens to have fun. Still, you want them to “learn a little something, too,” McChord said. 

The programming includes summer camps, financial classes with a Christian worldview, and athletic summer programs. Dual enrollment programming, which you can find more about on the Asbury website, also allows students to receive college credits as high school students.

Asbury President Dr. Kevin Brown spoke last, thanking the audience for attending, and celebrating the fact that Asbury had the highest enrollment the university has seen in a quarter of a century last fall. 

Acknowledging how easy it is to talk about a whole generation’s flaws rather than the good, Dr. Brown said that he has a lot of hope for the future, given the talent of current Asbury students. “But we want to keep that talent in the state,” he said. 

Dr. Brown used the last moments of his speech to honor a significant “connector” between the county and the university – Mayor and Asbury Equine Program Director Harold Rainwater. This year, Rainwater will be retiring not from his position as Wilmore Mayor, but from his position at Asbury University. Dr. Brown said that through Rainwater’s “Christ-like” traits, he has “truly left a blessed fingerprint not only on this county but on all the lives within it. Thank you Harold,” Dr. Brown said.