Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University’s semi-annual Tiger Serve Day attracted a record number of volunteers Saturday, Sept. 25.

The student-led community service blitz is sponsored by Ouachita’s Ben M. Elrod Center for Family & Community. Saturday’s event included 920 students, faculty and staff members serving on more than 80 teams and completing 100 projects for individuals, families, churches and organizations throughout the Arkadelphia area.

The 920 volunteers shattered the previous record of 707 volunteers who served earlier this year in the spring 2010 Tiger Serve Day. This semester’s Tiger Serve Day involvement represents more than 60 percent of Ouachita’s fall enrollment of 1,503 students.

The community service effort, which began following the tornado that hit Arkadelphia in March 1997, is marking its 14^th year of service. During that time, volunteers have logged more than 44,000 hours of community service.

Citing this semester’s record numbers, Judy Duvall, assistant director of the Elrod Center said, “We were thrilled that so many volunteered this semester. More volunteers mean more people are touched in this community.

“Tiger Serve Day teams volunteer to do jobs ranging from painting and window washing to raking, mowing and cleaning up yards for families and individuals throughout the area,” Duvall added. She said area residents served during Tiger Serve Day “get to meet and form relationships with OBU students as well as get some much-needed work done that might not get done if it weren't for these volunteers. More than anything, we hope that the community is able to see and experience the love of God through the volunteers.”

“Tiger Serve Day has become a very important part of life at Ouachita,” said Ian Cosh, Ouachita’s vice president for community and international engagement. “We are now promoting Tiger Serve Day at many events before students arrive on campus and that really helps our student response.”

Tiger Serve Day is organized and run each semester by a student leadership team of 15 to 20 students.

“About a month and a half before Tiger Serve Day in the fall and spring, the Tiger Serve Day Leadership Team begins to meet and make plans for the day,” Duvall said. “The team handles all the publicity, recruits volunteers, visits and records projects to be done on the day and buys the tools needed.

“It takes hours of work to make this day happen but it's very rewarding and well worth it when you see the benefit to the community as well as the impact it makes on the individuals who serve,” she said. “We also spend a lot of time in prayer for the day. We pray for the volunteers, for the community people served and for the day in general. We feel like that is our most important work.”

“Tiger Serve Day was better than ever this year, and that's due to all of the hard work and effort put in by everyone who participated,” said leadership team member Emily Morgan, a junior accounting major from Mountain Home, Ark. “People all over Arkadelphia were able to have a lot of work done on their houses and yards that otherwise may not have gotten done. Ouachita students helped improve the look of the town, as well as put smiles on many people's faces.”

“I'm really proud to be part of a university that places such a high value on loving God and loving people,” Duvall concluded. “On Tiger Serve Day each semester, we have an excellent opportunity to do this.”

In recognition of Tiger Serve Day and other service-oriented emphases, Ouachita has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for three consecutive years. Being named to the national honor roll is the highest federal recognition a university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.

“I am so pleased that the word ‘service’ is on our university seal,” said Ouachita President Rex Horne. “I am most proud that service is a part of the DNA of Ouachita. The commitment of students, faculty and staff to serve children through senior adults is exemplary.”

Ouachita Baptist University, a private Christian liberal arts university in Arkadelphia, also was recently named the No. 1 Regional College in the South by U.S. News & World Report for the fourth year in a row. Serving since 1886 as a Christ-centered learning community, Ouachita seeks to foster a love of God and a love of learning.

For more information about Ouachita, call 1-800-DIAL-OBU or visit the university website at www.obu.edu. For more information about Tiger Serve Day, contact Judy Duvall at [email protected].

By Trennis Henderson, OBU Vice President for Communications, and Meg Gosser, a senior mass communications and speech communication double major from Coppell, Texas.