By TENA L. COOK, CSC MARKETING COORDINATOR
CHADRON – Chadron State College’s annual day of service, The Big Event (TBE), is planned for April 26. Registration is now open for volunteers and jobsites. Kaylea Geiser and McKenzie Gable say the form can be competed in five to 10 minutes. The form can be found at www.csc.edu/thebigevent/ and questions can be directed to thebigevent@csc.edu or 308-432-6302.
The event started in 2013 and averages about 400-450 volunteers each year. The faculty adviser is Dr. Shaunda French-Collins and the graduate assistant is Sutton Pohlman.
Typically, students and CSC employees serve at 50-60 jobsites including businesses, government and non-profit organizations, and private residences. Requested tasks usually include painting fences, raking yards, and general yard and garden cleanup.
T-shirts and sandwiches are provided for volunteers following the completion of their work at job sites.
“This will be my third year on staff and my fourth year as a volunteer, so I've been a part of The Big Event my entire time at CSC,” Geiser said. “We have a student-led staff and we've been working really hard. We do all sorts of things like going out to job sites, contacting community members, just pretty much organizing the whole thing. It's a great group of people.”
Although the volunteers cannot enter private residences or use power tools or ladders, they are happy to help in other ways.
“We try to give back to the community in any way we can,” Geiser said. “We pick up a lot of trash. Basically, if you can think of anything outside that you want done, we are the people to contact. We can help you. We welcome anybody.”
Gable, TBE marketing coordinator, manages social media accounts for the organization.
“This is my first year on The Big Event staff. I needed to find an internship for one of my scholarships, so that led me to The Big Event,” Gable said. “We're excited to get information out to everybody.”