Ouachita’s Elrod Center to host Fall 2018 Tiger Serve Day on Sept. 22
September 21, 2018
- Brooke Woessner
Ouachita Baptist University’s Elrod Center for Family and Community will host Tiger
Serve Day on Saturday, Sept. 22. The event is held in every spring and fall semester
of the school year and creates a space for students, faculty and staff to serve the
community.
The theme for this year is “Lending a Hand” to highlight and encourage the genuine
servanthood that the Elrod Center and Ouachita strive to promote.
“Tiger Serve Day is a completely unselfish day focused on meeting the needs of others,”
explained Judy Duvall, associate director of the Elrod Center. “It is an others-centered
day and that is so refreshing in this day and age.”
“My favorite thing about Tiger Serve Day is the opportunity to see people’s perspectives
on service change and watch our campus serve those right here in Arkadelphia and understand
that service truly is a way of life,” said Molly Boone, a senior dietetics and nutrition
major from Maumelle, Ark. Boone serves on the student-led Tiger Serve Day Leadership
Team that helps plan and coordinate the event each semester.
“I love to see the connections made between our campus and the community,” Duvall
said. “Help is given, stories are shared and relationships are formed. As a result,
we experience a bond of friendship and realize that we are not alone.”
This semester’s event will be particularly poignant for members of the university
community due to the recent passing of Ben and Betty Lou Elrod, namesakes of the Elrod
Center. Dr. Ben Elrod served as Ouachita’s 13th president from 1988 to 1998 and served as chancellor from 1998 to his passing in
August 2018. Mrs. Elrod passed away the following month. In a document Dr. Elrod wrote,
he illustrates the beauty behind the center’s mission of servanthood: “It is the simple
attitude, characteristic and act of giving yourself for the benefit of others.”
“Tiger Serve Day was important to the Elrods because they loved Arkadelphia and took
delight in the fact that people were being helped in a practical way,” noted Ian Cosh,
Ouachita vice president for community and international engagement and director of
the Elrod Center. “They understood that when you serve you experience transformation
and growth.”
For more information on Tiger Serve Day, visit obu.edu/serve, or call the center at
(870) 245-5320.
By Brooke Woessner // Photos by Dani Droste
September 21, 2018
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