How The Big Event helped out a Tech Faculty Member
How a group of Virginia Tech Freshman came together and helped a local faculty member and his family around their home for the Big Event, on a day where Hokies give back to the local community.
BLACKSBURG, VA., April 9, 2016. - Collaboration: The student volunteers begin their duties under the guidance of Mr Weaver. Photo Courtesy of Isobel Cootes.
On April 9th, Virginia Tech students braved the snow and chilly 25 degree weather to give the local community a helping hand around their homes and businesses for the 15th anniversary of the Big Event at Tech. Each year the volunteer based event is run entirely by the students and is seen as a way to give back to the growing Hokie community, with small groups of volunteers being sent to various locations around Blacksburg, Christiansburg and the New River Valley.
A group of Freshman were sent to the house of Newman Libraries Community Development Director, Kevin Weavers, where they cleared out scrubs and gutters around the wooden home. With toddler Gabrielle occupying most of the families free time recently, the Weaver family said they struggled to keep up with maintenance of the houses exterior, and saw the opportunity of local students helping them as a great initiative and asset to the communities development.
Mr Weaver said it was also a chance to engage with students and he was grateful for the helping hand. "We have a young child which prevents us from getting out and doing all the yard work that we want to get done and all the projects we need to get done each spring. So I thought this would be a great way to get some help at our house, as well as a chance to meet and interact with some students."
Students also see the interaction as a chance to help spread the Hokie spirit in the local area and as a chance to interact with the community that supports Tech greatly. These core values were the basis for founding of the event in 1982 at Texas A&M and are what continues to make the event the 'largest, one-day, student-run service project in the nation'.
Freshman and Big Event group leader of the group 'Frooms' that volunteered at the Weavers home, Hannah Michnya, explained why she encouraged her friends to join her and help out this year. "Last year when I visited Tech I came for Hokie focus and the Big Event was going on then and i saw all the thousands of people on the Drillfield and I was like that looks like the coolest thing ever. And than I heard about it this year and I was like I got to do it, I really want to do it and than I just got everybody to do it with me."
The Big Event at Tech is one of the largest collegiate chapters in the country, with over 9,200 volunteers completing 1,102 jobs, the event is a large part of the Hokie community. For students and residents thinking of getting involved in next years Big Event, further information will be released in May later this year on the 2017 event.