Nearly 500 Mississippi State students will participate in The Big Event, a community-wide service project Friday.
MSU Student Association President Blake Jeter said The Big Event is an initiative coordinated by the SA to serve the people of the Starkville community.
“It’s a way for the university as a whole to give back to the city,” Jeter said.
Stressing that the people of Starkville do a lot for the university, Jeter said it is important for the community to know that its efforts do not go unnoticed by the students of MSU.
“It sends a message to the residents of Starkville and the community of Starkville that the students at Mississippi State are here to help,” Jeter said.
Though this is the first time MSU has ever participated, “The Big Event” has a strong history at other universities.
“The Big Event” was started at Texas A&M in 1983 and has grown into the largest one-day student-run service event in the nation.
According to Texas A&M’s Web site, its “Big Event” has grown to encompass the work of nearly 10,000 students completing 1,100 jobs in the community and surrounding areas annually.
Bringing “The Big Event” to MSU has been in the works for about a year, and the SA’s Freshmen Council made it a reality, Jeter said.
Council member Emily Nations said this is the Freshmen Council’s first year at MSU, and “The Big Event” is the council’s way of leaving its legacy on campus.
Nations said Starkville does a lot for MSU, and “The Big Event” gives students a chance to show their appreciation.
“Mississippi State is Starkville,” Nations said. “They’ve made Mississippi State what it is. It’s important that we do make this our home and take advantage of what they do for us.”
“The Big Event” shows Starkville students really care about the town that takes them in, Nations said.
The event is sponsored in part by the Greater Starkville Development Partnership.
GSDP president and CEO Jon Maynard said the partnership is invested in establishing the best relationship possible with the MSU student body.
Maynard said the event is a great opportunity to build a better relationship between the community and the student body.
“We want Starkville to be a place for students to call home when they’re in school but possibly a place to call home when they leave school,” Maynard said. “The fact that the students want to give back to the community is significant.”
Maynard said students involvement like this shows the student body cares, and the community is really excited about it.
“I think it will be nothing but positive,” Maynard said.
Maynard said the GSDP is happy to be involved in the event and looks forward to being a part of it in the future.
In addition to providing the T-shirts for the event participants, the partnership has helped the Freshmen Council generate job requests from people in the community. Service projects are based on job request forms filled out by members of the Starkville community.
Event participants signed up in teams made up of four to 10 people which are assigned to service projects best fitting the numbers and dynamics of the groups.
The event kicks off Friday at 7 a.m. with service projects to be undertaken throughout the day.
Though this is “The Big Event’s” first year at MSU, Maynard said it is expected to grow into something larger.
“You never know what’s going to happen when you plant an acorn,” Maynard said.
He said with the creation of “The Big Event,” the students of MSU are planting a seed to help the relationship between the student body and Starkville grow.