Collegiate Times

The Big Event lived up to its name as more than 1,000 Virginia Tech students rolled out of bed early Saturday morning to volunteer for 75 service projects in the New River Valley.

?We?re trying to say ?thank you? to Blacksburg residents for putting up with students,? said Christina Coukos, director of the Big Event and a senior consumer studies major.

The students met at 9 a.m. on the Drillfield, where they checked in and were given any necessary tools to complete their projects.

Coukos welcomed students and thanked them for participating. She also thanked the Cintas Corporation, a company that produces uniforms and sponsor of the Big Event.

?Without Cintas Corporation?s support, we could not be able to produce an event on this scale,? Coukos said. ?Cintas is a community-minded company that has been very generous in helping the Big Event.?

Charles Taylor, a political science professor and a minister at a local church, spoke second, followed by Tech President Charles Steger, who praised the students? hard work.

?These are committed students and faculty who join together and use their collective time and talents to make a difference in the communities throughout the New River Valley,? Steger said.

Bob Kohlhepp, a Cintas Chief Executive Officer, spoke after Steger about Cintas? history. Kohlhepp also offered advice about success for students.

?Giving back to the community is not uncommon here at Virginia Tech and in your university motto, ?ut prosim:? ?that I may serve,?? Kohlhepp said.

After the speeches, the students headed off to begin a day of volunteering. Members of Chi Omega sorority went to Harding Avenue Elementary School to rake, mulch and plant bulbs. While the task of raking can often be tiring and long, the group livened it up by talking and sitting on the bags of leaves to compress them.

?It?s really fun,? said Allie Colanduoni, Chi Omega?s Panhellenic delegate and a junior biology major.

Chi Omega wasn?t the only Greek organization participating in the Big Event. Delta Tau Delta members made a flowerbed and washed windows for Hattie Matherly, an elderly Blacksburg resident and a former Tech employee.

?We do a lot of community service,? said James Pembridge, a junior aerospace engineering major. ?It?s a way to get out in the community. We try to keep an active role in the community.?

Local residents were appreciative of the students? efforts.

?They washed the windows on the deck, and that?s a big job,? said Inez Sasse, a Blacksburg resident.

The Church of Christ Student Fellowship put screens in the Sasse?s windows to prepare their home for summer. In return, the couple invited the students to stay for lunch.

?We couldn?t have asked for a nicer group,? Sasse said.

?We?ve just had a lot of fun with them.?

The church felt it was their responsibility to volunteer in the community, said Brandy Woolsey, a graduate student in animal and poultry sciences.

?We want to be light and salt, which is light to share God?s word and his will and salt to be seasoned and mature and show what a difference being Christian makes to us,? Woolsey said.

?All of us enjoy helping people and meeting people in the community, and it?s fun working together. We have some bonding that goes on when we do that too.?

The Big Event began at Texas A&M University in 1982 with six students cleaning a local cemetery. There are now 24 schools across the United States participating in the Big Event.

Tech started doing the Big Event last year. 500 students participated; twice as many participated this year.

Cintas Corporation donated general funding for the project as well as T-shirts and water bottles for the participants.

The Student Government Association used the money to buy rakes, paint and tools.

?This whole idea of a volunteer day really appealed to us,? said John Myers, vice president of the mid-Atlantic Cintas group.

?It?s the thought of students who are taking their whole day off to volunteer.?