The Service Leadership Community and Engagement organization is sponsoring Big Event, an annual event in which University of Wyoming faculty and students volunteer their time and efforts to serve members of the Laramie community with any project that the community members have in mind.
Saturday marks the fourth annual SLCE sponsored Big Event. Every year, this service opportunity occurs the weekend near the beginning of homecoming week.
The Big Event at UW was inspired by the very first Big Event, introduced in 1982 at Texas A&M University, organized for the same purpose as UW—to present university students service opportunities throughout all of Laramie.
SLCE Street Team member and UW undergraduate student Colleen Floyd was a site leader last year for the Big Event.
The site leader in the Big Event acts a liaison between the community members and the student volunteers. This ensures that everything runs smoothly during volunteer projects.
The objectives of the Big Event are for students to give back and meet the members of their host community.
“I believe that students of the University of Wyoming make up 40-something percent of the Laramie community, and sometimes it just feels like there is such a polar difference between community members and university students. This is just a way for students to go out and meet members of their community and give back.” Floyd said.
Students at UW tend to stay inside their university bubble. Because of this, students at the university tend to be sheltered from their college town. The Big Event acts as a method to change that perspective.
“The university can sometimes be so self-encompassing. It’s really easy for students, especially those living in the residence halls, to be so focused on their own lives in university,” Floyd said. “Sometimes, you forget that you live in this broader, beautiful and thriving community.”
Benefits of the Big Event includes providing UW students with an opportunity to volunteer without them feeling unsure about how exactly to go about volunteering in the Laramie community.
“I feel like students are held back because they just don’t know what opportunities there are to be able to go out into the community, and this is just a great way to just be like, ‘Hey, you know what? You sign up for this, and there is going to be a site leader, and they’re going to help you, and they’re going to match you with the best site for you,’” Floyd said.
The jobs and tasks given to students by the community members tend to vary, so diversity is present in the type of volunteering that students are able to do.
Raking leaves, painting rooms, and painting fences are a few of the typical jobs given to students in the past during the Big Event, but SLCE and other student volunteers strive to complete every job request presented the Big Event.
“Last year, there was a single father, and we helped organize and make plans for a tree house for his kids because they were moving to Laramie, and he really wanted to show that he was going to be there for them, and we also made the lawn nice and clean for him,” Floyd said.
While volunteering the students and members of the community reap the benefits of service in terms of personal growth and community fusion.
“I believe volunteering instills in people empathy, compassion, and a good work ethic. Volunteering brings people together,” Floyd said. “For the Laramie community, it’s a great way to say, ‘Hey, we care.’”
Registration closes Thursday. To sign up as a group or as a single volunteer, visit https://www.uwyo.edu/union/slce/service/bigevent.html.
