Mark Dunkerly ’90—Distinguished Alum

When 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award winner Mark Dunkerly ’91 founded the Jubilee Craft Beer Company in 2010, charity was part of the mission. With the slogan “Good Beer for a Good Cause,” Jubilee donates 50 percent of profits to the Oasis Center, which serves Nashville’s homeless and at-risk youth through a variety of innovative programs and services. In his role as the founder of Jubilee, Mark has raised money for Oasis, as well as awareness about the nonprofit and the important work it does. Thanks to Jubliee, more and more Nashville restaurants, businesses, and patrons have begun to lend their support to the Oasis Center. “I’ve been overwhelmed with the positive reaction and support people have given to Oasis and Jubiliee,” says Mark.

 

Today Mark, who has a B.A. from Vanderbilt, an M.B.A. from Arizona State University, and a background in sports marketing and fundraising, is the vice president for development at Oasis. Though he continues to organize fun benefit events, such as the summer bash known as “Hot Chicken & Jorts,” he also manages the Oasis Center’s traditional fundraising efforts, with the very serious long-term goal of “putting ourselves in a position where we’re more sustainable.”

 

Mark remembers when a high school friend first connected him with the Oasis Center in 2009. His initial volunteer work there included “street outreach”—walking around the streets of Nashville looking for homeless youth who could benefit from the shelter and services of the Oasis Center. He’ll never forget encountering a boy who was just 14, had been kicked out of his house, and had nowhere to turn. That powerful experience—and others like it—brought into relief what a different experience Mark had growing up in a loving family and in the nurturing Harding community.

 

Receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award in May at Harding’s graduation ceremony, Mark invoked the lessons learned at Harding—in particular from his fourth grade production of the Wizard of Oz, in which he played the role of the Cowardly Lion. He noted how Harding cultivates the gifts the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion are all seeking. “Harding has developed your brain and your heart in ways that the Scarecrow and the Tin Man could only dream of—and it has positioned you well to have the courage that the Cowardly Lion so desperately wanted,” he told graduates.

 

“Have the courage to try new things. Get outside of your comfort zone, live abroad, start a business, do something crazy like giving half of your profits away to charity if that’s what you want to do. Because once you get older, you realize that life isn’t about stuff and things. Life is about experiences.  And some of the richest experiences come from helping others.”

 

See also the alumni profile from the Winter 2011 issue of the General News.