In the spring of 2012 a decision was made to eliminate "spirit points" which determined block seating.
Spirit points were given to people who participated in IMPACT, philanthropies, BIG Event and other events put on by Auburn.
Eliminating these points held the potential to negatively affect these programs.
"I wanted to see intentional and meaningful volunteerism and not forced work hours," said Owen Parrish, former SGA president. "We were in a system that I had seen through my time as Director of BIG Event and my time in SGA and friends' time as exec members and president for IMPACT that we were, instead of encouraging and supporting people to really love community service and love different avenues through which they could accomplish community service.
They were being forced into working for ulterior motives."
But even with these great intentions, many questioned if programs like BIG Event could effectively serve the Auburn community anymore.
"It was terrifying to think that this program that we had built up for so long might see a dramatic drop in volunteers." said Kyla Wilkinson, last year's BIG Event Director.
BIG Event, is a day of community service that allows Auburn students to give back to the community they call home.
Each year there are four directors appointed to the monumental task of planning the BIG Event.
This year's directors were Logan Powell, Leanne Portera, Catherine Pariseau and Kellie Jones.
None of the directors felt that the point system being taken away was a hindrance for this year's BIG Event.
"I think lack of spirit points was the best thing that could've happened to us," Portera said. "It made us take a step back and say what's the purpose of BIG Event?"
This attitude and question helped to motivate all the directors forward with the task at hand.
They each spoke in depth about all of their hard work. But, the BIG Event is held on a Saturday morning, and given the average college student's sleeping schedule; there was a lot of room for doubt.
These directors, however; didn't doubt.
"Throughout the year we never had a set number and our attitude was we're just going to work as hard as we can and that way at the end of the day if we have 500 people or we have 4,000 people we can rest knowing we did our best," Powell said.
Pariseau echoed this attitude and gave insight to the vision of the BIG Event team.
"We really decided we weren't going to be focused on numbers that we were gonna be focused on the quality over the quantity," Pariseau said.
With that hard working attitude and faith their future volunteers, the team pushed forward.
And all of their hard work and positive attitudes paid off.
The directors were invited to attend a national BIG Event conference at Texas A&M in the spring.
The conference, according to the directors, was informative and encouraging.
They all smiled while commenting on their own part in the conference.
Auburn's BIG Event directors were asked to give a presentation on their own event and strategies.
The program transitioned from one that many had doubted, to a program that was getting some national attention and praise.
Now, with a successful trip to Texas A&M under their belts, the directors still had the actual event to see through. But their confidence was as strong as ever.
"I think we all knew Auburn would step up," Potera said. "There was no doubt in our minds that there were going to be awesome students who were gonna come out and they blew us away."
And step up they did; 2,200 students volunteered at 170 jobsites in Auburn on March 23rd.
"The people who signed up just really pulled through," Jones said. "They honored the commitment that they made and that's something you can't say about a lot of college students. I think last Saturday really disproved that theory that college aged-students are solely focused on themselves."
This is exactly what BIG Event is about, Auburn students showing up to serve Auburn.
"People didn't go because they were forced to go," Parrish said. "They went because they cared about it. And I think that's a huge stride for BIG Event and I think the program has really unchained because of a lack of spirit points where it can really grow now it can really succeed because you have a passionate group of people who are participating and that care about it rather than a forced group of laborers who know they have to go once a year."
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