Students to help community with The Big Event

by Katie Flanagan / contributing writer

The SGA and Student Ambassadors are co-hosting a day of community service in an attempt to bring JMU students and the Harrisonburg community together on Saturday, April 9 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

This will be the first time that The Big Event will take place at JMU. The idea for The Big Event was taken from a conference on student government associations held at Texas A&M University earlier this year, said Carly Stamey, community service committee head of Student Ambassadors.

"The purpose is to unite the JMU campus with the Harrisonburg community through a day of service," Stamey said. "Volunteers will be doing all sorts of things, like yard work, painting and cleaning up parks or streams."

Wesli Spencer, SGA community affairs chair, attended the conference at Texas A&M and helped to bring the idea to JMU. "We found out that there are many schools across the nation that participate in The Big Event and wanted to bring this effort to JMU," Spencer said.

Cleanup will take place all over the Harrisonburg area including parks, schools and churches. Spencer said, several hundred volunteers are expected, including students

and student organizations such as SGA and Student Ambassadors, as well as volunteers from Blacks Run Greenway, Mercy House, Valley Aids and the Boys and Girls Club of Harrisonburg.

Pete Bsumek’s environmental communications class also was involved with the planning of this event, including advertising and promotion, sophomore Carly Estock said.

"I think it’s a good way to bring together JMU and the Harrisonburg community by being a part of something that will benefit all the residents of Harrisonburg," Estock said. "Both students and those who permanently reside in Harrisonburg travel downtown frequently and will be able to enjoy the work they did together."

Stamey said The Big Event not only will bring the school and community together but will also help improve relations between the two. "It will show people of Harrisonburg that JMU students do care about the area," Stamey said. "Sometimes it seems like we don’t have the best relationship with people outside of our campus, so we’re working to improve that over time."

"JMU’s motto ‘all together one’ is being achieved through the participation in this event; bringing us all together as one," Estock said.

"Apparently, the spirit that the surrounding community has for the school grows exponentially each year that The Big Event takes place," Spencer added. "You start to see more of the school’s paraphernalia and it softens relations between the community businesses and student organizations."