Malvina Farkle Day 2026 T-shirt Celebrates Lindsey Wilson University
Student Bishop Bale-Waters '28 of Shelbyville, Kentucky, creates winning design for T-shirt that will be worn on university's annual day of service.
COLUMBIA, Ky. (09/08/2026) — When members of the Lindsey Wilson University community participate this year in Malvina Farkle Day, they will sport a T-shirt that commemorates more than a day of service -- it will celebrate the entire university.
Held every year since 1996, Malvina Farkle Day is an annual fall celebration of a mythical Lindsey Wilson alumna and staff member who lived a life of service and fun while raising a pet opossum.
On the A.P. White Campus in Columbia, classes are dismissed for the day so students can spend the morning working on community-service projects in the region. The afternoon includes campus games and activities. Lindsey Wilson students and employees are given a special T-shirt commemorating the day, which is traditionally announced early on the morning of the day it is held.
At the university's community campuses, Malvina Farkle Day is usually held on other days and the activities are tailored to the local communities where students live and study.
No matter when and where Malvina Farkle Day is held in 2026, students, faculty and staff will wear T-shirts designed by student Bishop Bale-Waters '28.
A media studies major from Shelbyville, Kentucky, Bale-Waters' designed a T-shirt that was chosen from a university-wide vote of four finalists. The finalists' entries were produced for a "Computer Graphics" class taught by art faculty member Karly Flynn '17.
Broadening the celebration
Bale-Waters said he got the inspiration for his winning design from a Lindsey Wilson sticker book he discovered online. Rather than focusing exclusively on Malvina Farkle Day, Bale-Waters said he created a design that incorporated other university symbols, such as mascot Blue Raider Bob, a pennant and the Adair County Courthouse.
"I wanted to create a T-shirt that you could wear to anything and people would know it's Lindsey Wilson, not just Malvina Farkle Day," said Bale-Waters.
Bale-Waters selected Groovy Day and Soul Wave fonts for the T-shirt because "they're kind of a hippie font, and a hippie font goes really well with a day of community service."
A member of the Lindsey Wilson track and field team who competes in the triple jump, Bale-Waters spent his first two Malvina Farkle Day community service projects with his teammates -- collecting trash along the highway in 2024 and visiting residents of Signature HealthCARE at Summit Manor Rehab & Wellness Center in Columbia in 2025.
"I love helping the community," said Bale-Waters, who hopes to use his media studies degree one day to design similar projects for clients. "It's great to take a day where you could just sit in bed and not do anything and instead go out into the community and help people. We're all in it together, and we're all doing it for the same goal -- to help build a stronger community."
Lindsey Wilson University is a vibrant liberal arts university 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 offers 30 undergraduate majors, five graduate programs and a doctoral program. The university's 29 intercollegiate varsity athletic teams have won more than 120 team and individual national championships.
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Lindsey Wilson University student Bishop Bale-Waters ’28 of Shelbyville, Kentucky, displays the winning design he created for this year’s Malvina Farkle Day T-shirt. The annual fall event celebrates a day of community service at the university.
Lindsey Wilson University student Bishop Bale-Waters ’28 of Shelbyville, Kentucky, presents his design for the university’s 2026 Malvina Farkle Day T-shirt in art faculty member Karly Flynn’s “Computer Graphics” class. Bale-Waters’s design was chosen in a university-wide vote over designs by three other finalists.The annual fall event celebrates a day of community service at the university.