The Big Event, Part I
The Big Event, Part I
Every year, the freshman students of Orangeseeds work the entire second half of their semester organizing the “Big event” This event is the largest student-run day of community service on campus and consists of busing students into the city of Syracuse to volunteer at various organizations. They do work like picking up trash, painting walls, and washing floors at many different buildings and use many hands to make life work.
Alizee McLord (Falk, ’20) went to Thornden Park with a group of friends. They raked the leaves and cleaned up the side walk by trimming the branches and shoveling the excess dirt and leaves. She hadn’t been to Thornden Park before and really enjoyed keeping the park clean. Volunteering on Earth Day gave her a bigger appreciation for taking care of the Earth and dedicating time and effort to make a difference. As a bonus, it gave her a chance to spend some time outdoors!
Jackson Barnes (Ed., ’20) was one of the organizers of The Big Event. The event is organized exclusively by first year students, without help from the upperclassmen in the organization. Jackson was in charge of reaching out to organizations prior to the event to coordinate activities and times, and it taught him how to be professional and have good communication skills with important people in Syracuse.
Looking back, Jackson realized “it was a lot of responsibility to have but it made me a more independent thinker. On the day of the event, it was so great to see other students working so hard for a good cause and being in charge of them because I was in their shoes just a few months ago and seeing their transformation and my transformation was profound.”