Call it a labor of love or an act of gratitude, but an estimated record 20,000 Texas A&M University students are scheduled to work on 2,000 jobs Saturday (March 29) in the annual Big Event community service project.
Big Event — the largest one-day student-run service project in the nation — began with just six Aggies in 1982 who volunteered to clean up a local cemetery. The students planning the Big Event say they have as their goal making this the biggest year yet and the best. They add that Big Event is in its 32nd year, but those working to bring it about have a total of more than 35 years of experience.
This year for the first time, Big Event has gone international. Aggies studying abroad have planned service projects in Barcelona, Spain, Bonn, Germany, Castiglion, Italy and Mehran University in Pakistan.
“In Spain, Germany and Italy, our study abroad programs from Texas A&M are the main parts of these international Big Events. However, we also have nearby universities interested in starting a Big Event in all these cities (like Bonn University),” says Kevin Brooks, outreach chair for this year’s Big Event.
While it is not clear exactly how many will participate in these international projects taking place the same day as Big Event at Texas A&M, Brooks says at least 100-150 students will be doing 4 or 5 jobs at each location.
“Hopefully this will start the inevitable spread of The Big Event worldwide,” he adds.
In addition, Texas A&M’s Big Event has served as a model and inspiration for an estimated 95 similar events conducted by other universities throughout the nation. These universities learned of Big Event while attending a conference at Texas A&M each year. The conference is planned as a way to help other schools plan their own Big Event and it gives participants an opportunity to get advice from the Aggies and other schools. The outreach committee manages relationships with these other universities as well as The Big Event’s national public relations.
Bright and early Saturday, those legions of Texas A&M students — including varsity athletes, members of the Corps of Cadets, representatives of many of the university’s 800 clubs, fraternities and sororities, as well as scores of individuals — will pick up paint and brushes, rakes, shovels and other tools and fan out across the Bryan-College Station community to tackle fix-up, pick-up and work on projects as a way to say “thank you” to the community that hosts them during their days at Texas A&M.
The student leaders who have worked on this year’s Big Event and helped expand it to a historic level by starting Big Event projects overseas, are ready for Saturday and say they “can’t wait to see the Aggie Spirit in action.”
Big Event began expanding from its very beginnings because the idea of selfless service and giving back the community has a wide appeal to Aggies.
Joe Nussbaum ’84 was one of those first six Aggie volunteers at the first Big Event and he had a hand in its evolution. In 1982 he was a leader in Texas A&M’s Student Government Association along with his friend Evan Secor ’84. Another friend, Becky Bristol ’86 (now Becky Nussbaum), served as the first Big Event publicity director.
Aggies are always passionate about helping wherever they can and, once the idea of Big Event took shape, Nussbaum says other student organizations wanted in on the service project. In fact, when it came time to plan the second Big Event, there were more volunteers than there were projects so Nussbaum and the others began hunting for jobs to do.
From those first six students 32 years ago, Big Event comes to fruition each year with a committee of more than 200 students spending a year planning the monumental undertaking with a meticulous attention to detail that would have done the generals who planned D-Day proud. Like those generals, they have a mission clearly defined by a simple statement: One big day….one big thanks…. one Big Event.
Source: http://tamutimes.tamu.edu/2014/03/24/big-event-marks-32-years-of-community-service/#.UzGPPK1dVHE