By MANDY THOMAS

ajt008@latech.edu

 

Several hundred Tech students piled into the Joe Aillet Stadium, ready to get their hands dirty and complete some community service work for the Student Government Association’s Big Event last Saturday.

Participants received a pep talk from Miss Tech Natalie Berlin, a junior sociology major, before heading out to several homes in the Ruston community to begin working on minor home repairs.

Since Berlin’s platform deals with community service and connecting the campus to the community, Lindsay Mencacci, SGA president and a senior biology major, said her short and sweet speech really appealed to the students.

Robyn Crumby, SGA community service director and a sophomore architecture major, said her role was to plan the entire event. Crumby said planning began at the start of the school year with things such as setting a date, getting monetary and tool donations and advertising the event.

“Everything went really well and according to plan,” Crumby said. “The weather was great, participants were great, and I am very pleased.”

Crumby said 60 organizations and over 1200 students participated and worked at about 120 homes.

“This is the most work sites we have ever had,” Crumby said.

Heather Bowden, a SGA sophomore senator and a sophomore elementary education major, said the Big Event had a great turn-out this year and a great number of people in the city wanting help.

Bowden said many of the community service jobs consisted of housework, such as raking yards and cleaning windows.

“One family we worked for even wanted the group to paint their house,” Bowden said.

Because of the large number of Ruston families wanting help this year, Bowden said most SGA student leaders were in charge of two to three different work teams and Bowden was even in charge of 10 or 11 work teams.

Many of the groups finished the work around noon, Bowden said, and then returned to the stadium for hamburgers and just hanging out.

“I thought the Big Event was a great success because so many different people around campus came together to work together and really help the people of Ruston,” Bowden said.

Mencacci said the event was a success. Mencacci also said it is an easy event to put on because the organizations and the volunteers do the actual work.

She said the surplus of work sites gave the students more work.

“I think the community is getting used to the Big Event and more families really want to participate and give students good work to do,” Mencacci said.

Mencacci also said Berlin’s speech was a perfect match for the event.