The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s student-led and largest day of community service, The Big Event, is set to occur on Saturday, March 16.
The Big Event will be hosted by the Office of First Year Experiences and the Office of Sustainability on campus and expand throughout Lafayette Parish, contributing to communal beautification efforts and organizations.
The presenting sponsor of this year’s event is Parish Proud, a non-profit placemaking organization known for its advocacy and great strides in environmental conservation and community engagement.
Kylee Falcon, a junior and executive director of The Big Event, elaborated more on the event’s purpose, outreach and new additions incorporated into the 2024 program.
“The Big Event is this huge community service event we put on campus for our students. It’s a great opportunity for our students to get more connected with the community,” Falcon said.
The upcoming Big Event will be UL Lafayette’s 11th year hosting the program.
The event will work directly with sites in the university, areas within Lafayette and beyond the city.
“It’s a lot of on-campus and around-campus litter sites, cleaning up local communities, local businesses, local parks. We also send our students out; we have a few sites in Broussard this year,” Falcon said.
Several external organizations provide the service sites for The Big Event.
“A lot of our sites come from outside organizations, so we’ll work with Habitat for Humanity, Second Harvest,” Falcon continued.
As for the structure of the gathering, Falcon mentioned that the attendees can expect an opening ceremony, new entertainment and much community engagement.
Parish Proud itself will have nearly 100 volunteers at its site alone, the most prominent site of involvement in the event.
Falcon also mentioned a few new incorporations into the program.
“This year, we opened our horizons up to alumni, so now we have alumni volunteers. We are also opening up to Upward Bound, which is a program for high school students who are looking to set higher education.”
When asked what students can learn from participating in the event, Falcon hoped students would understand their impact on society and enjoy their experiences in helping their community.
“I want students to know that they’ve made an impact, that their time there was valuable to our community and event. That’s our main focus at The Big Event, that we give our students some outreach to the community and some fun volunteering,” Falcon concluded.
UL Lafayette students also shared their past experiences with The Big Event.
A junior and accounting major, Caleb Overby attended The Big Event in 2023 with UL Lafayette’s Institute for Management Accountants (IMA).
“Last year, we helped clean up the Lafayette Community Center. One of our members helped some of their accounting work, some of us helped them straighten up the place and others went to clean the neighborhood,” Overby said.
“It felt really good being able to give back to the community and help out,” Overby highlighted.
“The whole school was out doing different things and just being the big difference by each of us doing our little parts.”
Madison Dressler, a senior and biology/chemistry double major, attended The Big Event in 2022.
Dressler participated in the event with the university’s Biology Society and mainly helped clean the Downtown Lafayette area.
The Big Event is one of the largest events organized by the university that brings students together to support causes that are fundamental to maintaining their community.
Texas A&M University was the first to establish The Big Event in 1982, which later became widespread throughout the country.
UL Lafayette incorporated The Big Event in 2013.
The entirely student-organized effort is supported by the Office of First Year Experiences and the Office of Sustainability.
The Big Event is an opportunity for UL Lafayette students to engage with one another and make a lasting mark in their community.