Collegiate Times

Over 2,100 volunteers swarmed the New River Valley area this past Saturday, working approximately 256 jobs during the biggest community service day of the year, the Student Government Association's Big Event.

Beginning at 10 a.m., volunteers signed in, received official T-shirts and got their assigned projects from city officials. All over town, students worked on projects such as raking leaves, painting houses, planting landscaping, picking up trash, cleaning windows and working with mulch, said Julie Chop, sophomore geography major and Big Event co-chair.

?My group was assigned to help an elderly couple with landscape work,? said Lauren Young, sophomore industrial and systems engineering major. ?We worked on cleaning up their garden, raking leaves and washing the deck. It was nice, because I got to interact with other students outside of my major who wanted to give back to the community as well, and it was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.?

Students weren't the only ones excited about the day's activities. Staff from several departments across campus participated in the event as well.

?The best part about the Big Event is getting to work with such a great group of people and knowing that you are really making a difference,? said Dawn South, senior communication major and Big Event co-community outreach chair.

This year, Northwestern Mutual, a life insurance company based in Milwaukee, Wis., sponsored the Big Event, lending $10,000 to the project. This is the fifth year for the project at Virginia Tech. A total of 2,100 people participated in the event, an increase of 600 people over last year's total of 1,500, South said.

The Big Event was started at Virginia Tech by Christina McClung, a 2002 graduate, after she attended an SGA conference at Texas A&M, where the Big Event started in 1982. Today, over 7,000 people volunteer at Texas A&M. Their way of saying ?thank you? to the community has inspired universities all over the United States to adopt the Big Event as their own, South said.

At Virginia Tech, the planning took three years to come to fruition. The first Big Event involved 300 volunteers, Chop said.

Chris Sweeney, a senior finance major and the director of the Big Event, thinks that the Big Event is a great opportunity for students.

?I enjoy working with people, and this is a great way for students to come together and get involved,? Sweeney said.

Sweeney said planning for the event takes approximately one year, beginning after the project ends the previous year. The committee will start to get various jobs starting in the fall. After winter break, students are allowed to join with groups to participate.

Organizations are invited to participate by the event's student involvement committee, Chop said.

The Big Event staff is proud of how far the project has come in such a short time.

?I think Big Event went very well this year,? South said. ?It has grown so much in such a short time. This year was the largest Big Event we ever had and there was a dramatic increase in students and in jobs. Last year we did 180 jobs - this year we did 256. It's so great to see a whole year of planning pay off in one day.?

Volunteers shared the same enthusiasm.

?It was an extremely rewarding experience,? Young said. ?I wanted to give back to the community and contribute to a worthy cause. A rewarding college experience involves the community and developing relationships with residents that make Blacksburg such a wonderful place to be.?