BIG EVENT

A mass of volunteers gathered in the cold rain near the green space outside the Student Center for the kick-off of the Big Event Saturday, Feb. 6, at 9 a.m.

The Big Event has been directed by Auburn University's SGA for six years.

SGA arranges an application process where members of Auburn's community apply for the help of University volunteers.

Household help ranges from painting, roadside trash pick-up, gardening and packaging food.

"After the city of Auburn's continual support of Auburn University and its students, we are honored to have the opportunity to volunteer in the community and give back to a city that gives so much to us," said Brooke Donald, assistant director of the Big Event.

ThThis event not only allows credit for community service, but also awards a few spirit points for greek students. Steven Wheatley, senior in electrical engineering, 4-year veteran of the Big Event and president of Delta Chi, said his group is helping mainly for spirit points.

Wheatley was project coordinator for his group that consisted of freshmen and sophomores.

We brought freshmen and sophomores to get them out in Auburn's community and teach them how they can help during their early stages here at Auburn, Wheatley said. Wheatley's group was working at the Thomas family household, 520 Lee Road 662.

The Thomas family needed help painting the trim of their house and gardening.

The Thomas family household is home to six people ages 48, 30, 27, 7, 2 and 1, according to 7-year-old David Thomas.

Trey Oliver, freshman in political science, was the project coordinator at Loachapoka Elementary School, 685 Lee Road 61.

Oliver is a member of Freshman Forum which is a program of Tiger Tuesdays.

Oliver coordinated over 115 volunteers at Loachapoka Elementary.

"It's been really interesting," Oliver said. "Everybody is working hard. We are going to get this school looking a lot better."

Projects at Loachapoka Elementary included painting trim, classroom walls, hallway walls and gardening.

Hibbett Sports was at Loachapoka Elementary school also, but they were not painting or gardening.

Hibbett Sports has a project called "Operation Sports Renovation," said Joy McCord, vice president of Hibbett Sports.

Hibbett Sports has had this project going on for three years now.

"This is a community relations program to help underprivileged schools and schools stricken by natural disaster," McCord said.

More than $10,000 worth of merchandise was donated to Loachapoka Elementary School, McCord said. Schools are nominated online at www.hibbett.com for OSR.

Three schools are selected each year.

"This year we decided to partner with All Auburn, All Orange and their Big Event day to bring OSR to Loachapoka Elementary School," McCord said.

Hibbett Sports partners with vendors like Books-A-Million, Guy Harvey, Rawlings, Spalding, Wilson, Easton, Soffe and Converse, McCord said.

Converse donated three Dell Latitude laptops and a Hewlett-Packard printer.

Every student will leave with a Hibbett Sports bag packed full of merchandise, McCord said. It is like Christmas Day for them.

Hibbett Sports hands the bags out to the students Monday, Feb. 8.

"It's a joy 'cause we actually get to see the smiles on the kids' faces as we hand (the bags) out," said Shelley Sexton, events coordinator for Hibbett Sports.

Sarah Catherine Purvis, freshman in biomedical science, was project coordinator at multiple job sites.

One site that Purvis coordinated was the Trawick home at 218 Tallyhoo Drive.

The job site was the property directly behind the Trawick home which belonged to Woodland Park Community.

Todd Trawick serves in Woodland Park Community by managing improvement projects.

The community pool is located behind Trawick's up of aluminum. The jet is simply a straight cylindrical chamber where compressed air is forced through.

"The unique part of our lab is the high-speed laser system that we built ourself called the Pulse Burst Laser System," said Brian Thurow, associate professor for aerospace engineering, Long's faculty adviser and manager of the ALD lab. "It is capable of producing high-energy laser pulses at a repetition rate over 1,000,000 pulses per second."

Long said they are not able to use a turbine jet because the model is too small and there are size restrictions.

The small missile is home. Six of the volunteers at the Trawick home site are members of Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity.

"Although it's freezing and raining outside, we are really excited to be able to give back to the community," said Cecily Hornady, senior in marketing and brother of AKP.

This group was outside clearing a creek area that had been infested by beavers that dammed up the creek.

They were also clearing an area where a community playground will be constructed.

"It's all for giving back to the Auburn community," said Howard Park, sophomore in business finance and brother of AKP.

We are clearing this area out as a service to the children of my community, Trawick said.

Purvis also coordinated the Food Bank of East Alabama site on 375 Industry placed in the Blowdown Wind Tunnel, which is a four-by-four-inch tunnel where 1,200 mph winds flow past its contours.

The jet on the missile is then turned on and the high-speed camera starts rolling, filming and taking data throughout the experiment.

Long said he and his colleagues have an advanced system of high-speed laser video coverage to view the flight at a low speed.

This technology is not cheap.

"The most interesting part of the lab and what makes Auburn unique to even NASA is that we have about $500,000 worth of

Drive. Earl Mitchell, FBEA warehouse manager, helped direct the volunteers in the appropriate direction within the FBEA warehouse.

FBEA is a non-profit organization that serves Tallapoosa, Chambers, Lee, Russell, Macon, Barbour and a little of Bullock County, Mitchell said.

"We deal with around 150 agencies that deal directly with the less fortunate families and senior programs," Mitchell said. "We are distributing over 300,000 pounds of dry, frozen and refrigerated goods per month."

The volunteers are taking cases that have been opened, torn or damaged in some way and judging the products for integrity and freshness, Mitchell said.

Most of the food products come from Walmart distribution center, Mitchell said.

They deliver 10 to 20 pallets of products each week. Ten of the volunteers at FBEA represented Auburn's Ladies Society of

Collegiate Success. Those 10 were led by

Alainoia Lewis, junior in French and pre-med.

"Our organization is based on many things," Lewis said, "one of them being community service. Our activities are designed to bring us together as well as develop each lady as an individual."

By doing this community service, they are not only benefiting, but they are also uplifting the Auburn community, Lewis said.

Purvis said he was driving between the two sites all day making sure that things were operating smoothly.

"I love Auburn University so much that I want to tell the community that we do care," Purvis said. "It is the community that makes the University so great."