A record number of students, faculty and staff volunteered Saturday at 160 job sites in the Norman-Oklahoma City area as part of The Big Event.
Close to 5,000 people worked on a variety of service projects throughout the day, said Kaleb Potter, event chairman. Potter said the school also set a record for the number of job sites, which he attributed to improved communication between event organizers and the job locations.
OU President David Boren helped kick the day off with a message to the volunteers Saturday morning at the North Oval.
“The Big Event is an ideal expression of the Sooner spirit,” Boren said.
SHEPERD’S PLACE COMMUNITY CHURCH
The Honors Student Association and Kappa Phi, a Christian women’s club, volunteered at Shepherd’s Place Community Church in Norman. The two groups had about 50 volunteers who spent the day helping clean, weed and mulch the church’s overgrown gardens.
Devon Carnesciali, Honors Student Association member and University College freshman, said she was involved in a similar service day in high school, and that motivated her to do the same thing at OU.
Chad Bartlett, the church’s pastor, said he was grateful for the help. Bartlett said he tried to take care of the gardens during the summer, but was unable to do the amount of work the volunteers did in one day.
Volunteers said The Big Event also was rewarding for them.
“This was my third year to do it and we got paired up with a really good group,” said Allen Wang, multidisciplinary studies junior. “Everyone worked well and that made it fun.”
WESTLAWN BAPTIST CHURCH
Students from OU’s Campus Crusade for Christ, Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and Sigma Chi fraternity volunteered at Westlawn Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.
Volunteers were separated into groups and sent to help with different parts of the church. Some folded clothes and organized closets inside the church, while others painted the church’s exterior. Volunteers also helped sand the front door, pull weeds and paint the church signs.
One of the more tedious tasks involved chipping paint off two church doors with hand-sized paint scrapers. The doors were one of the last projects of the day and took a couple of hours to finish.
Kaylie Moss, accounting and management junior, volunteered to pull weeds for most of the day. Moss said she pulled sticker weeds with her bare hands because there weren’t any gloves.
She said her group used forks and knives as tools to pull weeds. By the end of the day, group members had small cuts on their hands from all of the stickers.
“I wish we would’ve had a mower, because then that job could’ve been done in two seconds. Then we could’ve been cleaning up something else inside the building, and doing something even more productive,” Moss said. “But it was a great experience and I enjoyed helping out.”
Keely Line, elementary education sophomore, helped inventory clothes and paint the trim of the church with a group from her sorority. Line said the experience allowed her to see how other people live.
“It was a diversifying experience,” Line said.
JEFFERSON ELEMENTARY
About 100 students said they felt satisfied after volunteering at Jefferson Elementary School in Norman as part of The Big Event.
This was the first opportunity for these students, from the freshman-only scholarship program Presidential Community Scholars, to participate in service day.
One group went to the elementary to help clean up the school’s play area and a special outdoor classroom. They also helped in preparing the school for an upcoming PTA meeting.
Meredith Donaldson, University College freshman, said she helped rake and gather up weeds in the outdoor classroom area. Donaldson said it looked awful upon arrival, but the work was worth it because it looks better now.
“Seeing how it looks, I think it was important to come here and work,” Donaldson said.
Kyle Combs, University College freshman, said he helped build a children’s fort in Dragon Land, a play area for 3- to 4-year-olds with special needs. He said it was easy to build for the most part, but some pieces — like a slide that was supposed to be easy to attach — gave him some trouble.
“The slide didn’t want to go in the holes it was pre-made for it to go into,” Combs said. “We had to force it and have five people push it in. Then it’d pop out again.”
Combs said after finally putting the slide permanently into place, he felt good about what he had done.
“I felt accomplished and relieved,” Combs said. “Like I had done something great.”
Jefferson Elementary Principal Kathy Taber said she always looks forward to The Big Event because of the impact it makes on the school, especially in the past several years. Taber said the school has had many ongoing remodeling projects that have left the school looking less than ideal.
“The cafeteria was expanded (and) that just totally destroyed our outside area,” Taber said
Taber said Dragon Land hasn’t been in existence for long, and it was a project that a staff member thought up as an idea to make it safer for younger children to play outside. Students were not only asked to build a fort, but also to clean up the fallen pine needles so children could play without tripping on them.
“A lot of work was done together and because we had so many students helping, it wasn’t overwhelming for anyone,” Taber said. “We’re all just very grateful.”
OKC NEIGHBORHOODS
Approximately 20 students from the Baptist Student Union picked up trash with the Oakcliff Neighborhood Association in Oklahoma City.
Amy Deramo, University College freshman, volunteered with the group and said she appreciated the opportunity to serve.
“I liked the fact that we were helping people in the community, cleaning up and making the neighborhoods look better by picking up the trash,” Deramo said.
Deramo said the project shows that college students are willing to volunteer.
“They still want to help out and serve the community,” she said.
Rebecca Kise, University College freshman, cleaned up ice storm damage with the Wesley Foundation in the Oklahoma City area.
“My favorite part was being able to lift logs and big tree trunks into the Dumpsters while the boys in my group just sat and watched in awe,” Kise said.
Kise said volunteers had to move large logs and branches into the Dumpster and clean up leaves and bushes.
“I liked being able to do that for people I did not know at all,” Kise said. “I think working for people you don’t know is the most rewarding thing in the world.”
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sooner12 2 years, 1 month ago
Uh yeah, my Big Event location was in OKC and my group worked with a sorority...they did not want to do anything and left before we were finished.