At the end of a stressful two weeks for many, OU students gathered at the south end of campus to clean up debris from the late October ice storm that wrought damage across the state and left many without power.
In a partnership between OU’s The Big Event and the International Advisory Committee, more than 100 students registered to volunteer Friday afternoon, said Big Event chair Lindsay Wiseman. The idea was jump-started when IAC President Amer Begović reached out to Student Life about trying to organize something, because he said he realized OU would not be able to do all the cleanup on their own.
“One day, I was walking home, and I was like, 'They need help,'” Begović said. “I was put in contact with The Big Event and (Wiseman), because they’ve done this so many times, they have the experience, they have the equipment and it was just a perfect match.”
All the equipment needed was already in The Big Event’s storage unit, Wiseman said, which holds the supplies they need to conduct their annual volunteer event in April where thousands of OU students are sent to serve across the Oklahoma City and Norman area.
Begović said he was glad IAC was able to help with this volunteer day because it’s a way for international students to show they care about the OU community.
“It's a big honor for IAC to do something like this, especially in such a tough year, when we were about to get banned from the U.S.,” Begović said. “After the way we've been treated this year by the (Trump) administration, I think this is just a nice way for us to show that we do care about the community, and we deserve to be here.”
Computer science sophomore Minh Dinh and energy management sophomore Juan Escalante were among those helping with the cleanup. Dinh said it was his first time participating in any of the organization's events, but that he hopes to continue volunteering with them.
“My fraternity really prides themselves on being involved in the community, so I thought that taking this opportunity would be a big first step in doing that for me,” Dinh said. “For me, this is like a gateway to other Big Event activities that I want to get involved in.”
Escalante said he felt the cleanup was important not only because OU prides itself on having such a beautiful campus, but also to bring the community together after experiencing the difficult ice storm.
This is the second volunteer day The Big Event has held this semester, the first being The Little Event on Oct. 17.
“The Little Event was kind of a test run for us to see if we could do masked and socially distant service in the community,” Wiseman said. “And we can, so we’re just going to do the same thing in the spring, but we're going to limit exposure as much as possible.”
The tentative date for The Big Event is April 10, Wiseman said.
