Award goes to Tulsa man for jobs boost

Clark Millspaugh of Tulsa recently received the 2010 Community Service Award given by the Oklahoma Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.

Millspaugh’s vision is transforming lives in an inner-city community of Tulsa, according to Steve Dickie, executive director of Oklahoma Methodist Manor, and Pastor Wade Paschal of Tulsa-First UMC.

Millspaugh is founder and president of Summit Exploration, an oil and gas firm. He and his wife, Anne, are active members of Tulsa-First UMC.

His desire to serve others led to the creation of Westside Harvest Market ("The Harvest"), which reaches out to people in the part of the city that includes Eugene Field Elementary School. The Harvest is a community center of sorts, with a nonprofit fresh-food market, prayer room, and educational programs for students and adults. Today hundreds of First Church volunteers enable the mission, Rev. Paschal said.

Last year, Millspaugh guided the launch of a new program, through the Harvest and Tulsa Community College (TCC), to help people develop skills in the health-care field, to secure better-paying jobs.

As a result, nine people completed training for Certified Nurse Assistants, qualifying them to work as caregivers for the elderly. Rev. Dickie confirmed that some then gained employment with the Manor, which is affiliated with the Church in Oklahoma.

"The real story is that Clark shepherded every one of those students through the program," Dickie said recently. "His love of the Lord spills over into service to others. What sets Clark apart is his incredible capacity of the heart."

"I am in tears when I see what this man has done."

Paschal described Clark as an entrepreneur who has taken that skill and applied it creatively to needs in that west Tulsa community.

"This is definitely part of his calling as a Christian. He’s one of our key lay people—a leader in the men’s ministry, one of our Sunday school teachers. He’s doing Kingdom stuff, and it’s exciting," the pastor said.

Taught by a TCC instructor, the classes are continuing at the Harvest.

"I love to find people going through some kind of transition, pray with them, and to help them make a difference," Millspaugh said.