Next semester on March 31, the fourth annual Big Event community service project will be taking place in the Farmville community. The Big Event continues to get bigger and better every year. "Last year we got about 750 people to volunteer and help out with the Big Event. This year we are shooting for 1,000 students to help out," said Big Event Director of Students Scott Hull.
With a little over 70 job sites last year, the Big Event committee is aiming for about 100 job sites this coming semester. "It's easily the biggest community service event on the campus and it's one of the biggest community service events across the United States on a lot of other campuses," said Big Event Director Brian Reid.
"We started planning for the Big Event a week after last year's Big Event," said Reid. He sat down with last year's Big Event Director and picked a date for the Big Event a week after the event last semester. Within a month after last year's Big Event, they had already picked out a date for this coming spring's Big Event and held elections, so they had officers before the start of the summer. This year they had a meeting the first Tuesday of the semester to get the ball rolling.
"As the director of students, we've come up with bigger and better ideas to get people to come out and actually know what the Big Event is," said Hull. As the main recruiter, Hull has already begun putting up flyers around campus in order to make people aware of the Big Event.
"It's actually my goal to get half of every single organization involved in the Big Event this year," said Hull. In the beginning of next semester, Hull will be personally contacting the presidents of the organizations on campus in order to get them involved. "It's for a great cause; it benefits Farmville as a whole. It puts Longwood on a different map than any other school because we're the only school that does something like this," said Hull.
There are seven committees, with the jobs committee and the recruitment committee being the largest committees within the event. The jobs committee has to go out and survey all of the job sites to make sure they are safe for students. "It helps us maintain a good relationship with the town of Farmville," Reid said.
This semester, the recruitment committee, jobs committee and the finance committee are working hard to get people involved and get job sites ready to make sure they are safe for students. Some tasks that students will be doing include painting, cleaning up yards, planting plants and washing windows.
All of the families and the people in the town of Farmville will benefit directly, but the students who participate in the event will also benefit in helping out in the community. "In reality, it's something that I think that every student should do," said Reid.
"We're trying to just work from the inside out," Reid said. They are trying to make their committees bigger this year and reach more students, as well as begin advertising to the students earlier. "My goal is to recruit a lot of underclassmen for next year. At the end of this Big Event we hope to get a lot of underclassmen on committees," Reid said.
Recruitment is huge for them this year in order to get students involved with the Big Event for next semester. "You see a lot of freshmen who don't even know what the Big Event is," Reid said.
He wants people to hear about the Big Event and get excited to come out and participate. "The Big Event is not just about helping those who are disadvantaged. This is a way for the students to say thank you to the townspeople," said adviser of the Big Event Dr. Jake Milne, assistant professor of sociology. Milne encourages faculty and staff who live locally to get involved with the Big Event and get students to come out and help them around their home. "It's easily the biggest community service event on the campus, and it's one of the biggest community service events across the United States on a lot of other campuses," said Reid.