Students Volunteer to Serve Shawnee During ‘One Body United’

April 12, 2016

Saturday. On most college campuses for most college students, it’s the day to sleep in, hang out with friends, shower at some point before evening, and have a good time that night.

For roughly 100 students at OBU, this past Saturday was about something much greater. It was about volunteering their time to serve the Shawnee community.

On Saturday, April 9, OBU students hosted the second annual One Body United event, organized by OBU’s Student Government Association (SGA), student life, and student ministry. The goal of the event was to engage and serve the Shawnee community as the hands and feet of Christ.

One Body United is an extended project of Serve Shawnee, an annual day during Welcome Week in August. The mission of this event is to come together once during the spring semester as a campus community made up of students, faculty, staff and alumni to serve the Shawnee area. The volunteers served at 12 locations including Cargo Ranch, the early childhood center, Good Shepherd Chapel, and various parks around Shawnee. The completed all kinds of projects, such as picking up trash, weeding, shoveling, planting, cleaning out storage spaces, gardening, and more.

Jessica Dickinson, director of the volunteer action committee with SGA, helped plan the event. “One Body United was a blessing,” she said. “It's amazing seeing the student body and community come together to serve those around us. We really appreciate LifeChurch serving us with a meal and the many others who drove vans or helped plan. The most amazing part was hearing the students praise God truly as one body united and seeing them serve around the city. We are sincerely thankful for those who came and are excited to see what the future will hold for this event.”