The Big Event took place on Saturday, October 14th at a variety of locations across Laramie. From 10 a.m. to around 1 p.m., students and volunteer crews worked on tasks such as pulling weeds, raking leaves and cleaning up trash.
One location crews were supposed to be was at the intersection of 1st and Garfield Street, where the farmers market takes place in the summer. I arrived at the location to interview folks and take photos of the event at around 11 a.m., only to find no one there. After searching the area and double checking I had the correct location, I hung around for a little while longer in an attempt to see if anyone would show up. No one did.
There was no signage for the Big Event, and no area where work had obviously been done.
When I called the number listed on the Big Event webpage, I was told that there was definitely a group at the Albany County Library, but they couldn’t tell me the location of where groups were working outside of that.
Shelby Kennedy, senior project coordinator at the University of Wyoming and part of the team putting on The Big Event, had described the 1st and Garfield location as a “site that would be great for coverage on the day of the event.”
If that was the case, where was everyone? What was it like at locations that weren’t great for coverage? The Big Event was, perhaps, not so big after all.
