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Saturday, April 6, a group of more than 50 Wayland Baptist students participated in Wayland’s annual event, Serve Plainview. Participating students, including student volunteers, staff members, and various WBU BASC classes gathered at 8:30 am to enjoy breakfast and coffee provided by WBU’s Office of Spiritual Life before heading out to serve as early as 9:00 am.

Serve Plainview has been hosted by the Spiritual Life area for a couple of years, but this year they partnered with WBU’s new organization, Curry Pioneer Leaders. Curry Pioneer Leaders began in the fall semester of 2023, led by Shawn Thomas, Donnie Brown, and Teresa Young. The group’s eight members chose to help the Spiritual Life staff in leading service groups in Serve Plainview as their spring project.

“Curry Pioneer Leaders gives students the opportunity to learn more detailed leadership skills,” said Teresa Young. “Our goal for Serve Plainview was to get faculty, students, and staff out serving our community, while teaching our Curry Pioneer Leaders important leadership skills.”

Serve Plainview service areas included a variety of assisted living facilities, such as BeeHive Homes of Plainview, Prairie House Living Center, Christian Manor Apartments, and Santa Fe Terrace. Areas also included cleaning up an abandoned city lot, painting parking spots in a nursing home parking lot, a yard sale for Compassionate Care Pregnancy Center, and sorting and organizing items to sell at the Salvation Army thrift store and Broadway Treasures. In all, there were about ten total service areas.

“I think as a university if we focus only on inward community in a classroom or in athletics, that we’ve missed a little bit,” said Young. “If we don’t get students out in the community, they will miss out on shining the light of Christ, representing Wayland, and opportunities to encourage students to want to be part of serving their community.”

To top off the day, students and staff were invited to Santa Fe Terrace to participate in an array of events, including bingo, wheelchair racing, and corn hole. Students got the opportunity to sit and converse with the residents, share many laughs together, and learn valuable lessons about the beauty of life.

“Being a part of Serve Plainview was even more beautiful than I expected,” said WBU freshman, Lorynn Wolf. “It didn’t feel like community service at all, rather an opportunity to speak to people with more years and experience than me, and to see life from a new perspective.”