In 2007, the Big Event made its way to Longwood University, while also having expanded to two other Virginia institutions of higher learning: Virginia Tech and James Madison University.
It has spread to several other universities over the years since it was founded in 1982 by Joe Nussbaum as a way to give back to the community which surrounded Texas A&M.
“It [the Big Event] came over [here] from Virginia Tech. I guess there was some interest from some students here and so they branched out to Virginia Tech and they [Virginia Tech] came here and told us all about it and how to plan it,” said Kevin Bradtke, the director of the Big Event.
Now, seven years later, the Big Event has expanded from 35 job sites to almost one hundred sites from last year’s Event.
This year, the event coordinators hope to get one hundred and twenty job sites, according to Bradtke.
But growth isn’t just limited to job sites.
“The first year, I guess, we had around three hundred fifty students,” said Bradtke. “Last year we had seven hundred fifty sign up. This year, we’re hoping to get a thousand students. [That’s] our goal this year. We hope to get as many as we can [though].”
Bradtke went on to say that he believed at some point, there would be too many Longwood students signing up compared to the number of job sites in Farmville.
The Big Event has been promoted to students through events held on Brock Commons for the past three Thursdays, along with flyers.
The Event is also tying in social media to promote it to the student population using Facebook and Twitter.
“We have our poster there,” said John Biegert, the media director for the Big Event, “and it has a QR code to send them to a direct link to our Facebook page."
He continued, "That has an abundance of information, including our mission statement and upcoming events, spirit nights at local restaurants. The money we get from [those] goes to buying supplies [for the Event].”
“We’re going to be putting an ad up on WMLU, the radio station,” said Bradtke. “They’re just going to be doing some PR (public relations) for us, telling people how to sign up for the Big Event.”
The types of jobs performed by the students are usually outside yard work that can be done with or without the use of a power tool depending on the job site one is assigned to.
According to Bradtke, students can rake leaves, plant a garden, paint fences, mulch, trim bushes and even break down old sheds, like students did for one of the job sites during last year’s Event.
Longwood, for its Big Event, attends job sites ten miles away from Longwood, as to not crowd out Hampden-Sydney College.
“They have a Big Event of their own, but it’s on a different day. They do everything on that side of Farmville. Outside of [ten miles], they do [all the job sites],” said Bradtke. “That’s on their side of the water.”
“If the days [of the Big Event] had conflicted,” said Biegert, “then possibly [a conflict] could come up but I don’t think our days conflict in any way.”
The sign up period is from March 1 to March 21. To sign up, go to longwoodbigevent.com and the form needed to sign up is available.
Students can find it through the link found on the website called Eventbrite. Students just enter their name, year and whether or not they own a car. There will also be a link available on the group’s Facebook page and on Twitter.
To prepare for anything, there is a plan in place in case of inclement weather on the day of the Big Event.
“We pray for the best weather. That is one thing that would affect the day for sure. We’re always hoping it will be a nice day [but] if it looks like it’ll be a bad day weather wise like rain, we might reschedule,” said Biegert.
“If we know it’s going to rain, we might push it up one weekend. That all depends, as we get closer to March, what we’ll do then.” Biegert continued.
For more information about the Big Event, contact Kevin Bradtke at kevin.bradtke@live. longwood.edu or visit longwoodbigevent.com.
