With a new officer team and a fresh perspective, the ACU Outdoor Club has started the semester off  hitting the ground running.

The club’s mission statement is “to promote outdoor knowledge, ethics and service.” This group of students has made it their objective to explore and better understand God’s creation and the role humans have within it. To build community, the ACU Outdoor Club hopes to participate in Abilene State Park’s Clean-Up and goes on trips together.

After the entire officer team graduated last May, a completely new officer team is spearheading the Outdoor Club. The team has already led a trip this semester and is excited about the possibility of upcoming weekend trips.

They have been working on recruiting new members by opening weekend trips to non-members and advertising events on ACU’s campus

The club’s most recent excursion was a trip last weekend to the Mineral Wells State Park in Mineral Wells. Twelve people in all, group hiked on the state park’s trail, swam in Lake Mineral Wells and camped.

New member to the Outdoor Club, Aubrie Hood, a sophomore accounting major from Abilene said, “The best part of taking trips is that while they build community off campus, they also build relationships on-campus. I’ve made great friendships with people that I would have never met otherwise.”

The club is tentatively planning on taking a hiking trip to Palo Duro Canyon State Park located in Canyon and also intends on participating in a local service project in which they will clear hiking trails at the Abilene State Park according to Solomon.

Anyone interested in joining the club is required to pay a $20 membership fee which includes first priority on weekend trips, a club t-shirt and cheaper pricing on trips. The club’s trips are not exclusive to members only, but are also open to non-members.  Anyone interested in joining the club or going on a trip should contact the ACU Outdoor Club at acuoutdoorclub@gmail.com.