ORU Environmental Stewardship Club
Formed in 1998, the ORU ESC has been active in campus and community events. The focus of this club is two fold: education and service. Two to three times a semester, local speakers are brought in to inform club members about sustainable activities going on in the community. On-campus and community service projects have been undertaken on a regular basis.
Education
Speakers have met with the club from the following Tulsa organizations: the Metropolitan Environmental Trust, the Tulsa Conservation District – “Blue Thumb Project”, the Oklahoma Nature Conservancy and the Tulsa Zoo.
For three years a spring Creation Care Week was held during which keynote speakers were invited, a middle school poster contest was held, environmental movies were shown, and a community litter cleanup event was held. The first year, Dr. Job Ebenezer, Environmental Coordinator for the Lutheran Church of America presented ideas about urban green projects. The second year, Angela Cantola of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spoke on the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program. She and Don Wallace led students to an experience in a local wetland as part of a ministry called, “Open the Book of Nature”. The third year, Dr. Jim Ball, Executive Director of the Evangelical Environmental Network gave a talk entitled "Healthy Families, Healthy Environment."
Service
Every year the club has picked up litter around the banks of Lake Evelyn. Several years, club members participated in the Tulsa community creek cleanup event and in 2000, the event was held on the ORU campus to clean up Fred Creek.
For three years, club members made handmade paper from recycled exams and junk mail. This paper was sold as greeting cards and envelopes before Christmas and Valentine’s Day. The proceeds were contributed to an environmental restoration project in Sri Lanka and subsequent proceeds are being saved to contribute to a microinvestment project and for purchasing trees on campus.
