QU Students Give Big Thanks with Big Event

I glanced at the time on my cell phone as I tied my sneakers and secured my hair into a ponytail. Normally at 7:45 a.m. on a Saturday, Quinnipiac students are still sleeping, recovering from a week of all-nighters in the library and the previous night at Aunt Chilada’s.

This Saturday; however, was special. It marked the second annual Big Event hosted by .

“The Big Event is a campus wide community service event. This year one thousand students are going out into Hamden, New Haven and the surrounding area and working in over 50 non-profit organizations to do three hours of service,” said Jen Walts, the event founder and a Quinnipiac class of 2010 alumna.

According to Walts, Quinnipiac’s Big Event has grown from about 700 student volunteers last year to a little over 1,000 volunteers this year. With each volunteer completing three hours of service, about 3,000 hours of community service are logged in one big day.

Even though this expression of gratitude through community service may be relatively new to Quinnipiac, it started 27 years ago at Texas A&M University and has since spread to universities all over the country.

The day began with some free coffee and muffins and opening remarks from Quinnipiac University President John Lahey, a representative from the Ronald McDonald House in New Haven and Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson.

Jackson thanked students for their efforts and reminded them of the positive effect their service has on their community. His son, Max, was standing by his father’s side at the podium wearing a Big Event t-shirt that draped far past his knees.

“[Max] is going to go to kindergarten next year. Some people in this room today will go to and work on a gardening project. That’s the school that Max will go to. That is a garden that he will enjoy,” Mayor Jackson said. “The work that you do is real.”

Soon, all of the teams were on their way to their volunteer sites, tools and water bottles in hand.

My team, a group of about thirty of my sorority sisters, was sent to Camp Anseox in Oxford to help the Girl Scouts of America prepare for the upcoming camp season.

Our first task was to pitch a series of semi-permanent tents. It took at least three of us to carry each tent to its cabin-like platform, where we had to unfold the giant green and tan tarps and feed long wooden stakes through them.

Then four of us would go to each of the stakes and leverage our combined weight to hoist the tent into the air. A volunteer at each corner would help make sure the stakes were standing straight and then secure the tent in place with rope. From there, it was just a matter of tying a few more pieces of rope to hold the tent up.
 
When we first arrived at the campsite, Girl Scout employees waiting for us seemed a little surprised that they were sent a group of women, but we definitely demonstrated some serious girl power. We raised about 10 tents before we were put to work collecting kindle wood for the campfire and raking the pathways on the campsite.

Once we finished raking all the leaves and dumped them in the woods, we began shoveling mulch into a wheelbarrow and spreading it around to create a defined pathway.

The transformation was amazing. In just three hours, we turned a dreary looking clearing in the woods into a fully functional campground for the Girl Scouts and other groups to use.

Each of us left that campground knowing that we positively impacted our community. It felt really great to know that I was able to give back to the place I call home, even if I'm only here until I finish my degree.