Oxford Exchange Club honors veterans and donates historic artwork to Oxford High School

The Oxford Exchange Club spent the same stretch of May reaching three different corners of Oxford life: veterans, schools and student achievement. In one week, the club helped deliver a historic artwork to Oxford High School, served a Memorial Day meal to residents of the Oxford Veterans Affairs Nursing Home, and highlighted Macon Harrell’s student recognition through the Exchange Club network.

On May 20, the club presented Oxford High School with a reproduction of John Trumbull’s painting of the Declaration of Independence reaching Congress. Mike and Sue Brownlee donated the artwork, which was installed on the second floor near a display of foundational national documents. That display had been donated by the Oxford Exchange Club several years earlier, and the new piece was chosen with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026 in mind.

Trumbull’s original work holds a central place in early American history. The Architect of the Capitol says the painting depicts the June 28, 1776 presentation of the first draft of the Declaration to the Second Continental Congress at Independence Hall. It was the first completed painting in a four-scene Revolutionary series that Congress commissioned from Trumbull in 1817, and the image now connects Oxford High School students to a defining civic moment as they move through the building.

Two days after the school presentation, the Exchange Club helped host a Memorial Day barbecue lunch for about 150 residents of the Oxford Veterans Affairs Nursing Home. The club partnered with the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Marine Corps League on the meal, which fit into Oxford’s broader annual Memorial Day observance with American Legion Post 55, Marine Corps League Detachment 1431, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3978 and Disabled American Veterans.

The local veterans home adds weight to that effort. Mississippi’s veterans-home system says the Mississippi State Veterans Home at Oxford is one of four state veterans homes in Mississippi, established in 1997, and that the system serves about 600 veterans across its locations. For a home that serves a defined and often aging population, the lunch was a direct form of holiday recognition rather than a ceremonial nod.

The club also tied its May activities to student achievement. Macon Harrell was nominated for the Mississippi District Exchange Club’s Student of the Year award and scholarship, part of the National Exchange Club’s youth-program model. The organization’s district-level Youth of the Year winners can receive a $2,500 scholarship.

Harrell’s recognition came after he and Lily Kate Coughlin were named among the top four Mississippi finalists in the inaugural Presidential 1776 Award for Civics. Harrell was also set to represent Mississippi in the national competition on CBS on June 30. Taken together, the club’s work showed how local civic groups can fill gaps between schools, veterans and families with visible support that reaches beyond a single event.