According to The Big Event expansion packet, the event originated 26 years ago at Texas A&M by the SGA Vice President. The packet dictates that, “The goal of The BIG Event is to create a single day where students at campuses across the nation can come together for one big day, one big thanks, one Big Event. Though we may not be working side by side, the spirit of service will be apparent from coast to coast.” The Big Event now takes place on over 71 college campuses.

This year at Quinnipiac, SGA teamed up with the Community Action Project (CAP). SGA Vice-President of Public Relations, Jen Walts, and Co-President of CAP, Hillary Federico became the co-chairs of a committee of eight individuals. With the help of their respective organizations, they were able to put on The Big Event.

“We started from scratch,” said Big Event Co-Chair Hillary Federico. “We mostly handled all the logistical things by ourselves, which is a lot, especially the first year.”

Below is a video of featuring more from members of The Big Event committee and pictures from the various service sites students attended.

This year, Walts and her team were able to receive donations from various campus departments, including Athletics, to purchase supplies for each site and t-shirts for each participant. The small committee was responsible for calling all the sites and recruiting volunteers in addition to organizing the teams and ensuring everything played out the day of.

Quinnipiac students volunteered at 53 sites over the course of the day. This sites were located in Hamden and surrounding areas like Wallingford and New Haven. Federico comments that students were involved in “everything from painting day care centers, to building fences, to raking. A couple students were involved in a car wash. Basically you think of it, you name it, they did it. “

Teams consisted of Greek organizations, SPB, clubs around campus, or just students who wanted to get involved.
Below are just some of the sites that students visited and what their duties were.

Publicity Chair Ashley-rose Sherman also works at the Alumni House where one of her responsibilities is to contact parents and gauge their child’s experience. “If I ask [the parents] what event or how their kid was involved on campus, they always bring up the big event and say how much fun that their son or daughter had.”

Sisters of Phi Sigma Sigma were assigned to assist at St. Martin de Porres Academy in New Haven, where they did outdoor manuel labor to make the school better for it’s students.

Even though this year’s event just ended, the committee is already starting to work on next spring’s second annual Big Event.

The new committee will be co-chaired by Matt Hudak, SGA VP of Public Relations and Melissa Trinks, the co-president of CAP. Hudak is anxious to get started. “Its quite the event to take on, but I do love what the event is all about which is motivation enough for our big event team to pull through and do a really great job in 2011,” he said.

While Federico stressed working on the organizational structure of the committee, Hudak has other plans to improve The Big Event. “Outreach to sponsors and many more volunteers are the two things on the top of my list for improvements,” Hudak said.

“Our goal was to make this a tradition, so hopefully it will continue,” said Federico

Below are some documents that correlate to the article. The first document is a copy of the letter of interest sent to over 100 organizations and non-profits in the area to provide more information to potential sites and inform them the purpose and plan for the day.

But participating in community service once a year is hardly the average. Out of 51 students surveyed, 49 percent serve their community at least once a semester, and 45 percent participate multiple times in a month.

“Service is important because its a great way for you to give back to your community. In some way or another someone has given back to you,” said junior international business major Valencia Constant

The survey also asked how often students participate in philanthropic events.  Philanthropy is different from service in that the main purpose is to raise funds and awareness. 80 percent of the students serve by donating money.

“The most effective way to raise awareness for philanthropies is to spread the word,” said Danielle LoIacono, senior Psychology major. “They will not only gain a better understanding of the cause but feel a genuine interest in wanting to donate and give their time.”

Results from SurveyMonkey.com

The fact is that service can be done everyday. And since all of the students surveyed felt service was at least somewhat important, it’s necessary to know how to give back to the community daily. One of the easiest ways is through The Hunger Site. Sponsors donate something for each click, depending on which section. By clicking each day, an individual can donate 1.1 cups of food, provide a free mammogram, aid in child health care, donate a book, protect 11.4 square feet of rain forest, and give .6 bowls of food to rescued animals.

“I think a lot of people are under the impression that Quinnipiac students don’t care about important issues. I brought St. Baldrick’s because I knew that they just needed an outlet to express themselves. When Vin Bond mentioned it, we knew that this would be perfect,” said Catie Regan, co-chair of the St. Baldrick’s event.

Vin Bond, who not only participated, but made the opening remarks, has shaved his head through St. Baldrick’s 16 times.  “My mother and my younger cousin are proud survivors of their battles with cancer,” said Bond in his opening speech.

The event was wildly successful. A total of 28 young men and one woman shaved their heads, eight of which made the decision that night after watching other participate. In addition, $6,600 were raised. “Though I was very optimistic about how this event would go, I could never have imagined that there would be such an overwhelming response,” said Regan.

Apture

The EPA defines a carbon footprint as a term “used to describe the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) that are emitted into the atmosphere each year by an entity such as a person, household, building, organization, or company. It is usually measured in units of carbon dioxide equivalents.”

According to the carbon management company Carbon Footprint (of whom Ikea is a client), an individuals carbon footprint can be decreased by turning off unnecessary lights, using public transportation or carpooling, using only as much water as is needed, and other minor lifestyle changes.

A widget by University of California, Berkeley biology department allows an individual to generate their own carbon footprint and find out their influence on the environment based on location, vehicle usage, food consumption, and a variety of other factors.

Quinnipiac students are often blinded by their beautiful campus and do not look beyond the quaint town of Hamden into the community around them.

In reality, the New Haven area that college students so readily flock to every weekend is one of the most impoverished cities in Connecticut.  According to city-data.com, New Haven ranks No. 8 on a list of cities with the highest percentage of people living in poverty (2007).

Adam Horgan, former Legislative intern to State Representative Joseph Taborsak, outlined the efforts being undertaken by the State of Connecticut geared toward unemployed adults and children.  “The State also has programs such as reduced price lunches, affordable housing, and other aid available to families,” he said. On a more localized level, the Connecticut Food Bank provides sustenance to struggling families.   The Waterbury Warehouse Manager, Sarah Heidel, insisted that anyone “whether donating time, money or food” can make a difference in their community. The most impoverished cities are shown below with blue points, and Quinnipiac with yellow points. For each city, the poverty level is written on the map. All facts courtesy of city-data.com.

View Larger Map

Nicaragua is considered the poorest country in Central America by the CIA World Factbook. 48 percent (about 5 million people) of the population live below the poverty line.  One of the Quinnipiac group leaders, Matt Hudak, describes one especially shocking scene of families living in a garbage dump. This is an example of extreme poverty, which UNICEF classifies as 17 percent of the population. Portions of the population have little to no access to health care or a clean water supply.

Jen Walts, one of the MAT students who travelled to Nicaragua last March experienced a similarly shocking display of poverty.  On her trip from the airport, a young boy got up when the bus hit a red light to clean the entire vehicle, all for some spare change.  This young boy is part of a child labor force of about 10 percent and an even larger percentage (24 percent) are not in school.

Nicaragua has accepted the UNICEF child friendly schools program, which not only provides education but also insures the health and safety of students. This prevents a trend  among students as listed by Save the Children to drop out in first grade, and most certainly before sixth grade.

These are all issues that are being considered by major international organizations, but also by the motivated Quinnipiac students that dedicate their breaks to providing education and improving conditions in Nicaragua schools.

Check out the featured artists: Labor Daze, John Greenlaw, and Carly Kaplan.  Other performers included comedian Brad DePrima, Quinnipiac Step to Perfection, and singer Kay Place.

The instantaneous thought after hearing about any disaster is ‘how can I help,’ followed generally by ‘where do I write my check to?’ The American Red Cross seems the obvious answer, but how much is enough?

For any person who cannot drop their life and fly to Haiti, sending money is the best way to do your part and help out. Donators want to know where their money is going and how is it helping. As the video describes, it takes mere pennies to get the supplies needed and only a few hours to get the money there. The video emphasizes “think big,” making UNICEF and the Red Cross ideal organizations to work through.  The logic is that these are international organizations that have the knowledge and means to get exact materials to the right places.

Immediate relief for several weeks after the disaster includes essentials for survival. Medical supplies are absolutely necessary along with food and water.  As the people start recovering, school supplies will be start being sent to different areas in order to restore order to the childrens’ lives.

Of course, the Red Cross is not the only option. Many other organizations do sufficient amounts of work and are sometimes overshadowed by other relief efforts. While the Red Cross still ranks number one for USA Today due to their initiatives through social media outlets like Facebook and text messaging.

In light of some of the Hurricane Katrina controversies, the Red Cross has stepped up to be the number one name coming out of Haiti. In fact, per the bar graph below, the Red Cross has contributed at least 30 percent of United States donations towards disaster relief.