In 1982, Joe Nussbaum, Vice President of the Student Government Association (SGA) of Texas A&M University, founded the Big Event as a way for the students at the university to say ‘Thank You” to the surrounding community.
31 years later, the Big Event is still going strong at A&M, but also at locations such as Virginia Tech, Florida State University, James Madison University, the University of North Dakota, University of Oklahoma, the University of Mississippi, Auburn University, Mississippi State University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Longwood University.
On Sat., March 23, 450 Longwood students gathered behind Lankford Student Union to participate in the fifth annual Big Event. While the Big Event is a good way to earn community service hours for your club or Greek organization and looks good on your résumé for post-graduate education, this is not the only reason students helped out. They were there to give thanks to the community that has supported them throughout their years here and will continue to support them in the future.
While the number of students was 300 fewer than the 750 that had signed up, it was still a fair amount of students. This year saw an increase in the number of jobs, a 30-job increase making almost 100 jobs available to participants.
The Director of the Big Event Tracey Clements said, “When we first began the event [five years ago], we had around 20-30 students and 12 jobs. We did really, really little the first year. It was super little. Now we’re almost at 100 [jobs]. I’d say that’s an improvement. The increase this year was awesome. I feel that we did a lot of PR and marketing in the community more this year, so that probably helped. ”
Students started to collect behind the Student Union at around 8 a.m. to register for the event, find the other members of their groups and receive needed supplies to aid them at their job sites. The registration process lasted until 9 a.m., and then it was off to the races. Students participated at their sites from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. After that, the students and staff of the event were treated to an outdoor picnic hosted by Aramark, one of the sponsors of this year’s Big Event.
The jobs in question are basically anything a person could do without the use of power tools. It could range from raking leaves, painting a structure, weeding, mulching, planting flowers, picking up trash off the side of the road, etc.
The Director of Projects for the event Quaid Anderson said, “I know some major [jobs] this year were raking, mulching, painting, weeding; just normal yard work.”
Clements said, “[The types of jobs are] pretty much the same. It’s always been the same every year, anything around the house people need done. Most of it is yard work obviously. I mean, [just] odd things, in’s and out’s to help people out.”
While some stumbles were expected, neither the enthusiasm of the staff nor the enthusiasm of the volunteers was dampened in any way.
Sophomore Kendall Tignor said, “I participate in the Big Event because it puts Longwood out in the community.”
When asked if she thought the Big Event would take place this time next year, Clements had only this to say, “Most definitely. I think that [the Big Event] will take place for many years.”
