Fourth-annual Community Day offers plenty for many

The fourth-annual OTC Community Day will offer visitors a chance to experience how to survive a zombie attack, donate to a worthy cause and check out the latest in beautifully restored cars and trucks.

Community Day is April 27 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the OTC Springfield Campus. Dozens of programs will conduct demonstrations, offer various useful services and provide a large number of entertaining play stations for children.

Jennifer Dunkel, lead instructor for developmental writing at OTC, said the zombie project started as a sophomore seminar and is a program to teach hands-on survival skills using the popular zombie theme as the basis for the class.

At Community Day, students will demonstrate a variety of survival skills including Bug-Out-Bags, which will show the public what to pack in advance in case of an emergency. They will also have hands-on demonstrations of water purification, solar cooking, and basic first aid, all necessary skills for emergency situations.

“Students have also created an interactive ‘Zombie Infection’ game to show how quickly a zombie virus could spread. Community Day seemed a fitting event to get the word out about zombie survival tips through demonstrations that the entire community can learn from,” Dunkel said.

The annual welding repair day will be in place again, with a $10 donation asked of those wanting an item welded. The work will be done by current and former welding students. The money is being donated to the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks.

The annual OTC Car and Truck show is expected to draw more than 100 entrants with trophies awarded in a wide variety of categories.

The day will also feature the annual plant sale along with tables and booths offering demonstrations, health screenings, and hands-on projects. The Colleges new Mobile Hearing Instrument vehicle will be on display along with manikins from the Colleges new simulation center. The Springfield-Greene County Library’s Bookmobile will be on site again.

For more information on Community Day and to register for the car show, go to www.otc.edu/communityday.