At 4:35 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, March 5, Big Event Executive Director Emma Grace Laird’s alarm blared, getting her moving in time to prepare for the arrival of volunteers to the Student Center Greenspace at 8 a.m. for the Big Event kickoff.
The Big Event covered over 200 job sites across the Auburn-Opelika area this year, including businesses, homes and churches.
No shortage of Auburn students registered to participate in this year’s event.
The final number of volunteers totaled to about 2,000 people, a number Laird, junior in rehabilitation and disabilities studies and Spanish, was happy with.
“The turnout was so encouraging," Laird said. "We got our goal so we are really excited.”
Before volunteers arrived, there was setting up to be done and hundreds of chicken biscuits to be put out for breakfast, but Laird, who has participated in the Big Event since her freshman year, said the early start did not bother her.
“It was an early morning, but I was excited so that made it a lot easier … And we got everything set up really early so it kind of just gave us all a chance … to hang out and take it all in," Laird said. "It’s been great.”
Like Laird, Frances Smith, junior in nursing and team captain for this year’s Big Event, has participated in the Big Event since her freshman year.
With the Freshman Leadership Program group she leads, Smith drove to the Jean Dean Reading is Fundamental warehouse to help ready books for distribution to local elementary school students.
Smith loves the Big Event gives her an opportunity to pay it forward.
“I think it is a great way to give back to the Auburn community that does so much for its students, and it allows us just to do things that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to do if the community wasn’t on board,” Smith said.
Mary Frances Veronese, freshman in industrial engineering and German and first time Big Event participant, was a member of Smith’s team and said although she stumbled into doing the Big Event because she had an open Saturday, she plans on registering again next year.
“I didn’t have anything to do today, which sounds horrible, but I was like, ‘I guess if I don’t have anything to do and I can volunteer to help somebody with something … that would be a good way to spend my time’ …And I’ve really enjoyed it,” Veronese said.
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