It may be only one day a year, but The Big Event is the biggest one to look out for. As Longwood University’s largest campus-wide community service project, The Big Event breaks records every year, whether through the number of students attending or the number of projects in the community being attended to.
For this year’s Big Event, we can thank two individuals for their hard work and determination to put on an even bigger Big Event with a record-breaking 99 projects in the town of Farmville.
Tracey Clements, a senior accounting major, served as Director of The Big Event. This year marks her third year participating in the Big Event as well as her second as a member of the executive board. She began working with The Big Event in her sophomore year under the Projects Committee and served as Director of Projects in her junior year.
As Director, Clements’ roles are to oversee all executive positions and committees in The Big Event.
William “Quaid” Anderson, a junior computer science major, served as Director of Projects. This year marked Anderson’s third year participating in The Big Event and his first year on the executive board.
In last year’s Big Event, Anderson served on the Projects Committee headed under the Director of Project. Anderson stated that what motivated him to join the executive board of the Big Event Committee was “Just to step up to the next level.”
As Director of Projects, his duties entailed getting the jobs that students would go to on the day of the event. Doing this, his committee called residents in the town of Farmville, asking for their interest in the event and also setting up a survey date to check safety, what chores were being asked from students and if any supplies would be donated by the resident.
Growing up in Powhatan, Va., both Clements and Anderson often did community service. Anderson said that some activities he did included going out with his church, going to nursing homes, doing yard work as well as participating in Relay for Life and Invisible Children.
“It’s giving back to the community that I live in. It’s making them feel better. You’re making a difference to someone that could really use it,” said Anderson.
Clements said, “I love community service because it’s a good thing to give back to the community that allows us and this campus to be here.”
While the goal for this year’s Big Event was to have 100 job sites and only 99 were achieved, Anderson said, “I think it was very successful. I think it was very successful last year, but I think this year, with the executive board, we had our motive to really push each other, we did a great job, and hopefully next year it’s even better and we do break 100.”
Clements said, “I feel like we definitely went to the max of our PR and marketing this year. We definitely reached [out] to the community more as a whole instead of just word of mouth and reputation. We went to churches and to the Town Hall meetings to get out.”
Speaking on this year’s Big Event, Anderson said, “The biggest challenges were definitely setting up the surveys, going out and meeting people and then working with them at a time that worked for [both] them and the students.”
Clements stated, “Definitely, the challenges of this year’s Big Event were students not showing up that signed up. We had 750 students signed up ... but quite a few didn’t show up. Around 250 didn’t show up, which makes it hard after we plan each jobs site [and] the number of people [for each one].”
Anderson commented that the set up for the The Big Event was altered this year in that there were fewer members allowed for each committee. He noted that last year there had not been enough work to go around with so many.
With fewer committee members, Anderson said, “There was a lot of pressure on my committee, and they stepped up big time.”
With advice for students on next year’s Big Event executive board, Anderson said, “Definitely prepare for the unexpected.”
He further added, “Don’t wait until the last minute ... Just work hard and everything is going to be fine. We all had a lot of fun.”
Clements added, “Try to plan as best as you can, and always strive to do better than we did in the past years ... Reach out to more students and people in the community. Make it bigger and better each year. It’s called the Big Event for a reason.”
