Students Create 'One Body United' Event to Serve Shawnee Community

OBU students, faculty and staff gathered together as one body of over 150 people to serve Shawnee through various hands-on projects Saturday, April 18. Serving in 20 different locations, participants cleaned windows, painted, completed yard work, picked up trash and more.

Students Abi Hagans, sophomore, and Jessica Dickinson, junior, initiated and organized the event. Both share a strong passion for serving the Shawnee community.

"We wanted to bring together the student body to serve the community," said Dickinson. "We have been doing Serve Shawnee during Welcome Week for years, and we thought we needed [Serve Shawnee] extended to the spring."

Welcome Week transpires in the fall as an event-driven week for new freshman to acclimate to OBU culture. Freshman students and upperclassmen spend a day each year serving the community through service projects. Hagans explained that there was a high demand for serving opportunities that anyone, including students, professors or staff, could participate in.

"We have Serve Shawnee in the fall, but it's mainly for freshman only," said Hagans. "We wanted to provide students with an open door and bring the service projects to them. It is all about being a servant of Christ and acting upon what He has called us to do."

The service projects included locations such as Shawnee Middle School, Good Shepherd Chapel, Will Rogers Elementary, Cargo Ranch, C-Bar Ranch and Shawnee parks.

Hagans and Dickenson both believe the event was a success.

"We were super excited for the turnout at One Body United," said Dickinson. "We planned this to be an event that will be carried on into the future and hope it will only continue to get better as we reach out to even more of the Shawnee community."