Social service plays a significant role at Oklahoma Christian University, in residence life, social clubs and across campus in general. Oklahoma Christian emphasizes service as a vital part of its mission and values.
This year, junior Brandi Buxton stepped into the role of social service director for Gamma Rho, a position she said is very meaningful to her.
“I just feel so called to do this. And I feel like we don’t always get the opportunity to but college is such a unique thing where we have all these opportunities in this whole big group. And I just felt like Gamma was a group of like 100 people. We could be doing so much,” Buxton said. “And so I just felt called to help people, and I knew that Gamma could do that. And so I just wanted to be a person that could give them the opportunities to help people.”
Buxton shared the importance of serving, especially when people come together with a common goal.
“I just think it’s because it’s what Jesus would do. And as Christians, our whole goal is to just shine his light, and so we need to do what he would do. I think it just creates community. When we pair together, that’s two clubs that are their own community, but now they’re one community,” Buxton said. “Or when you help people outside of club, you’re getting to reach out to just so many more people. I just think it helps open your eyes to things maybe you’re not aware of, and helps you get to be part of your community in a very unique way and get to see the needs that people have.”
Buxton said she heard about a special opportunity to serve the community from a Gamma alum.
Crockstar, a local meal-preparation company, recently hosted a food drive where they collected donations of prepackaged bags of groceries to help those affected by the SNAP suspension. While the main event occurred on Nov. 4, Crockstar is continuing to collect donations for as long as supplies last.
“A Gamma alum sent me a screenshot of their Facebook post on Instagram, and she was just like, ‘I think this is something your club could do.’ And then I read through it, and looked up what it was,” Buxton said. “I noticed that that’s not necessarily what they do, but they’re doing it specifically because they want to help everyone. So I thought that was kind of cool because they saw a need, and they wanted to fulfill the need.”
Buxton said she immediately knew she wanted to help and get the social service clubs on campus involved.
“Skylar, who is Gamma’s president, and I were like how can we make it a way that all of us can work together and have community, because we really want club unity, but also just get them the most amount they can give, because Gamma can only give so much,” Buxton said.
Another club participating in the food drive is Kappa Sigma Tau. Senior Jude Stewart, a member of Kappa, explains how serving is a core part of being in a social service club.
“I think we made a choice to be a part of a social service club, and we definitely get a lot of the social but if we do none of the service, why do we do it? It’s a lot about teaching us to walk the walk,” Stewart said. “We want to help people, especially in these times when it’s cold outside, and people need food. It’s important to be able to be a resource to help those people.”
Several of the social clubs are currently collecting nonperishable food items to donate to Crockstar and serve the local community.
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