Students rally together for community service |
| Posted by Administrator on Apr 08 2009 at 3:06 PM |
Photo by Sophie Lee
MinJu Ki, a junior English major from Seoul, South Korea, gives coins to participants of the game Chinning Chin Chin Race during The Big Event on April 4. Ki was assigned to lead the game for children of the community. "I'm so grateful for this opportunity. I feel like I'm actually a part of this community," Ki said.
By Tara Purdie
Antelope Staff
One week prior to The Big Event, Amber Lewis, co-chair of The Big Event, requested more community service projects for over 400 student volunteers from student organizations such as athletic teams, residence halls and Greek organizations. The number of volunteers continues to rise each year.
Saturday, April 4, students swarmed the Kearney community to clean up debris, organize and deep-clean individual homes and landscape as well as do other types of chores.
Student senate and Sigma Phi Epsilon member Caleb Chvatal searched Yanny Park for garbage with around twenty other students. Chvatal is a sophomore visual and communications design major from Fremont. Chvatal said he wanted to volunteer because it's a great thing to do and recommends that more projects be created for next year's volunteers. "We had a lot more people than expected so we would need more jobs sites. We ran out of things to do."
Alpha Tau Omega President Eugene Bichlmeier gave up his typical catch-up on sleep Saturday morning to give back to the community. The Alpha Tau Omega fraternity had 19 out of 25 members volunteer at The Big Event.
"The community does so much for UNK, and being in a fraternity, it is kind of the guts and glory of what we like to do," Bichlmeier said.
Bichlmeier, who is a senior broadcasting major from Columbus who has participated in The Big Event the last three years, said he enjoyed watching the program grow. This year, Bichlmeier offered his help at the Press On Community Youth Center where he cut down trees, hoed the garden, painted benches, vacuumed floors and cleaned walls. Bichlmeier said it felt great to help decrease the workload for a non-profit organization.
Sophomore Mechelle Hespen from Fremont helped elderly Coradell Gruwell dust her fan, pull weeds from her rock bed and vacuum and mop her floors. Hespen is a middle school education major. Hespen said she enjoyed getting to know Gruwell and hearing about her life because "she was just the sweetest 80-year-old lady." Hespen explained that Gruwell was previously a teacher, nurse and administrator in an assisted living home.
Hespen said, "She tries to do as much housework as she can, but she has a bad back and really shouldn't. I'm glad we were there to help her."
Freshman Grand Island native majoring in agricultural business, James Kenyon, also lent his hands to pull weeds, dig up bushes and move rocks. Kenyon's group of eight helped the Salvation Army with miscellaneous landscaping.
"The main thing I learned today was exactly how heavy wheel barrels full of rocks are, but I had fun," Kenyon said.
UNK is one of 70 universities nation-wide that participate in The Big Event, which opened with donuts and coffee and closed with pizza in Harmon Park.
