Valpo Student Shares Faith, Fellowship, and Service in Sweetwine Music Ministry
When Fox Wilmot ’24 first came to Valpo, he already understood faith and service to be the foundation of his journey forward. The oldest brother of four, with youth ministry experience back home in Laurel, Maryland, he was no stranger to responsibility or leadership — two strong qualities that only continued to flourish when he joined Valpo’s Sweetwine Music Ministry as a percussionist during his sophomore year.
Founded in 1972, Sweetwine is Valpo’s Christian traveling music ministry group whose mission is to spread the message of Jesus through music, fellowship, and service. The name comes from the idea that Jesus is the “sweet wine” to our “bitter cup of life,” bringing sweet news of salvation that comes in the form of His body and blood. Fox first heard about Sweetwine from girlfriend Kylie Bowlds ’23, ’25 M.A., who had been part of the cohort since her freshman year. “Through her, I started hanging out with a lot of the people in Sweetwine. We went to some of their events and performances, and I thought it was really cool,” Fox recounts. “The next year, I auditioned and I got in. It was a big thing for me.”
Sweetwine regularly performs in Valpo’s Chapel of the Resurrection, local schools and churches, homeless shelters, and nursing homes throughout the year. During the University’s fall and spring breaks, the group branches out even farther. Sometimes, they travel to places where they already have connections and grow those relationships — St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Traverse City, Michigan; other times, they go somewhere new to lay the roots of fellowship to come. Regardless of the destination, the goal is always the same: to “live to tell,” a tradition rooted in spreading the Gospel through music and service that’s been upheld since its start decades ago — and further put into practice by the group’s most recent Spring Break service trip to Boston.
“We plan service for all the days that we’re there and plan to sing — whether that’s at local churches or just wherever we happen to be,” Fox says. “As soon as we got to Boston, we got right to work serving at the local church that was nice enough to host us, where we performed in their worship service the next morning… From there, we would head out throughout the day for different service opportunities: food packaging, sorting through clothing donations, food distribution — all kinds of stuff. We try to stay busy out there. That’s the goal.”
This most recent trip was Fox’s sixth tour with Sweetwine, which he helped put into action as one of the group’s three leaders. “It’s always been an uplifting experience. It’s what Sweetwine is all about,” Fox shares, looking back at past service trips. “We rehearse throughout the week, but these tours are our big opportunity to show the community who we are and what we do. We’re all service-oriented and this week is a great time to really activate that within ourselves… The end of a tour is, more often than not, a mountaintop moment for us. We have to spend a little time coming off of that high.”
Traditionally made up of a small, 12-student group who share a love for growing in Christ, music, and serving, Fox finds that the best way to describe Sweetwine is akin to a college youth group. “If I could give you a scope into what rehearsals and tours look like, that would be it. It’s a young adult youth group,” he says. “Coming into college, I didn’t realize I had so much appreciation for a group of people who check in on me every week — and really do want to hear your highs, lows, and GMOs (God moments). We check in with each other about all of that every week and have prayer partner time, where we meet with another member of the group one-on-one and pray. It’s the best thing about Sweetwine for me: having a family on campus where we all care about each other deeply.”
A perfect testament to Fox’s experience: Sweetwine Night — a time of affirmation, friendship, and support after a week of service. Throughout the week, Sweetwine members take the time to write a wonderful thing they’ve noticed about every member of their cohort, which they then share on Sweetwine Night. “We spend the whole week serving others and pouring into others and then, at the end of the week, we shift into a time of affirmation for each other. It’s a time to build each other up,” Fox explains. “So, we go around and share those affirmations with each other. It strengthens us, and brings our group even closer together.”
It’s an experience Fox will carry with him for the rest of his life. “Someone asked me the other day what my most valuable possession was, and I immediately thought back to the brown paper bag that I kept all my written affirmations in from our last spring tour. And now, I have another bag of affirmations from this tour,” Fox says. “And I think those are my most valuable possessions because just reading back over what the group said to me and what I’ve said to others, it’s so meaningful and encouraging for me.”
Fox’s experience on each of Sweetwine’s tours is unique and impactful — a shared value spread across each of Valpo’s annual Spring Break service trips. As part of Sweetwine’s trip, it’s a key milestone of every Valpo experience that Fox considers to be of utmost importance. “Spring Break service trips are a staple of what Valpo stands for. The whole reason that Valpo has two weeks of Spring Break is so that students can spend that first week in service — whether that’s a University-sponsored trip, an FSL trip, or a student organization trip — and I think that really speaks to the focus Valpo has on being service and philanthropy-oriented. It’s not just for student morale, but a key part of our student identity. It speaks to our motto: In Thy Light We See Light.” We couldn’t agree more.
Now, with graduation only a month away, Fox is preparing the next set of Sweetwine leaders to step into his shoes — and with an open invitation. For any student looking for a home rooted in faith and a group of people to grow closer to God with, Sweetwine is the right place. “If you’re just looking for somewhere you can sing, there are plenty of great opportunities for that on campus. But Sweetwine involves a lot more faith-based and emotional commitments. We all have God at the focus, and if that’s what you’re looking for, we’d love to have you,” Fox says. “I fully credit Sweetwine for helping me find a home in Valpo. There’s not another group like it. It’s a really nice space that we share with each other.”
Even beyond his time as a Beacon, Fox’s time at Sweetwine proved to be influential to his future aspirations to become a youth minister. As a theology and ministry student with a sociology minor, Fox’s goal is to ignite change at a personal level. “I think a big driving force behind why I want to work with youth in the future and why I’ve worked with them in the past is because I remember a lot of my childhood where I was kind of dismissed as a kid. I was thought of as lesser than, or not knowing too much — which, literally, I did not know as much because I was a kid — but it was discouraging,” Fox shares. “I felt like I would have benefited a lot from having more adults in my life who saw me as a growing person instead of ‘just a kid.’ So, that’s been kind of a thing for me, because whenever I work with kids, I want them to feel heard and respected. I want them to be able to go home and say, ‘Fox listened to me and what I have to say.’ That’s kind of a micro-level change, but that’s the impact that I want to have on people’s lives.”
Throughout his time at Valpo, Fox participated in the 2023 CAPS Fellows program — a summer-long service fellowship through the University’s Institute for Leadership and Service — in Washington, D.C. He served as a peer minister for his fellow Beacons on campus, for which he humbly accepted the fraternity and sorority life Pillar of Excellence Award. He’s currently part of Phi Mu Alpha, Valpo’s music fraternity, and was formerly the president of the campus boxing club. We’re proud that teaching and ministry is a mission Fox plans to carry into the world even after Commencement — a true Beacon lending his light to those in need.
Current Beacons or incoming students inspired by Fox’s journey are welcome to learn more about campus ministry, our CAPS Fellows program, becoming a peer minister, and, of course, joining the Sweetwine legacy.
