This past weekend was one of the most important weekends for the Farmville community and Longwood University: The Big Event. The Big Event began on Saturday, March 29 at 9:30 a.m. in the Grand Dining Room of Dorrill Dining Hall.
“The mission of Longwood’s Big Event is to promote campus and community unity as students join together to express their gratitude for the continuous support that the Farmville community offers us during our college careers,” said Director Kevin Bradtke. “Each year we do our best to give back to the town as much as we can while also saying thank you for everything they do and showing them that we truly are citizen leaders.”
What most students don’t realize is that The Big Event takes a whole academic year to plan and organize.
“The executive board consists of eight students, which include Assistant Director Kirsten Gaines, Director of Students Catherine McCormick, Director of Jobs Jarrett Henderson, Director of Logistics Camden VonBechman, Director of PR and Media John Biegert, Director of Finance Manny Dwyer and Director of Fundraising Nicole Chappelle; that meet every other week during the fall semester beginning in September,” said Bradtke.
He continued, “We meet to discuss new and more efficient ways to run the event. Other than that we plan ways to market the event such as sending out sponsorship packets to a lot of businesses in town, working with Longwood’s [Conference and Event Services] to reserve the space we need, and also planning the logistics for the day of the event.”
The Big Event began on Saturday with students arriving as early as 8:15, trying to get a free T-shirt that was given to the first 500 students. Once inside, students were given name tags along with a number determining who they were going to be paired up with and which site they were assigned to around the Farmville community.
First year student Christyna Mencarini attended The Big Event for the first time and fell in love with it so much that she’s willing to come back again next year.
“It wasn’t what I was expecting because of the rain, but it was a lot of fun” said Mencarini “I had to rake leaves in the rain, along with eight other girls; we only had four rakes and we alternated by picking it up and putting it in plastic bags while the other girls raked the leaves.”
Second year student Mary-Kate Wiedemer attended The Big Event last year as well as this year. “It feels good to give back to the community of Farmville,” said Wiedemer. “I did it last year and loved it so much, so I decided to do it again this year. My job this year was gardening and yard work outside in the rain while also washing windows. There were 15 of us so we decided to alternate throughout the jobs.”
The residents of Farmville love when Longwood students help out. Jennifer Gotz was helping an older woman when she came out and told the students that because of the rain they didn’t have to clean the ditch because their safety was more important to her.
“It was sweet,” said Gotz. “I was more than willing to help her along with my teammates, but she didn’t want us to get hurt, which was really nice of her due to the rain and how wet it was.”
“The people of Farmville always have great feedback for The Big Event” said Bradtke. “They love having the students come out and help out with anything they have. It’s always positive feedback from the town; they are very appreciative of the students.”
Bradtke also mentioned that this year they had a great outcome for The Big Event. He said, “This year we had 93 jobs throughout the town of Farmville and even with the rain we had around 500 students come out which was great.”
Longwood students have always been active in the Farmville community, but with The Big Event, their participation continues to grow.
