i
nday • April 3, 1995
..... . . —
isjiisiillsi
The Battalion • Page 3
□ More than 4,800
A&M students
helped out in the
Bryan-College Sta
tion community Sat
urday in the 13th an
nual Big Event.
Big Event participants gather at Olsen Field for a pep rally before going to work.
By Gretchen Perrenot
The Battalion
The Brjlm-College Station community
had more than 4,800 pairs of helping hands
Saturday as A&M students gave back to the
community in the 13th annual Big Event.
Two hundred organizations did chores
and odd joTbs for those who could not do the
work themselves, or who just needed a
helping hand.
Help 'vyhs available to anyone who re
quested it during the Big Event. Recipients
had students wash windows, mow lawns,
fix porch^railings, plant flowers and just
about anything else that needed to be done.
Scott SHtterwhite, director for Big Event,
said students worked at more than 400 differ
ent sites throughout the day.
“Everything went, really smoothly and
there wa^H’t a single problem all day,” Satter-
white sai||t “The weather was also perfect.”
The clfpr, sunny weather on Saturday al
lowed paliticipants to do much outdoor work,
such as yhrdwork and roofing.
Nora Jlabe of College Station said the work
done on ||fer roof was very much appreciated.
“We’v|| been trying to replace the roof on
our housjpl that was damaged during a storm,”
Rabe sajlt “The students came in and tore off
the old shingles and carried the new ones up
to the roof.”
Rab^rsaid she was told Tuesday that a
group i0LS not going to be able to come be
cause t|fe Big Event did not have any students
familiar, with roofing, but to her delight, they
found iftroup.
“Myvihusband and I were outside and a
lied up, and then another, and
other,” she said. “We were so
because we didn’t expect them to
said she has never used Big Event
before, but did so this year because they
could not have done all the work on the
roof by themselves.
The 11 students who worked on the Rabes’
roof had all worked on Bonfire. Rabe said she
had wanted the students who helped her to be
Bonfire workers because of her past experi
ence with them.
“We had helped restack after Bonfire fell,
and we really liked the people we worked
with,” she said. “ If we could get that caliber
of guys again we wanted to to have them help.
“We specifically asked for guys
from Bonfire because they know how
to take orders and give orders.”
Cheba Rodriguez of Bryan also en
joyed her Big Event experience and
said the event is a chance for the com
munity to work together.
“I think is it important for every
one to pull together and be united,”
Rodriguez said.
This was the first year for Ro
driguez to receive help from Big
Event and she learned about the
event from her daughter, who works
at A&M. Her daughter suggested she
have someone put a porch on her
trailer, because all she had were
some steps leading to the door.
Unfortunately, Big Event did
not have the supplies to build a
porch for Rodriguez this year. The
Crocker Hall residents and their
friends who helped Rodriguez did
some lawn work instead.
“I’m sure sorry I missed out on
them building a porch,” she said.
“But they did a beautiful job on the
yard.
“My neighbor almost called the police on
them because I wasn’t home when they were
there and she thought they were trying to hit
my house.”
John Franz, a resident of Crocker Hall who
worked on Rodriguez’s house, said his group
made her house look really nice and enjoyed
the work they did.
Crocker Hall had two assignments, the
other one was at an abandoned church off
Highway 21.
“We cleaned out the back room,” Franz
said. “There were some old refrigerators, box
springs, rusted cans, things that had accumu
lated over the years.”
Franz said his group met a lady and her
children while working at the church and
the group is going back on Wednesday to
do some more work and bring the children
Easter baskets.
Big Event was not only about doing
work for people, it was about spending
time with the people in the community.
Some of the recipients of the Big Event
were elderly people who lived alone and
could not do the work themselves.
Four members from Eta Kappa Nu, Texas
A&M’s Electrical Engineering Honor Society,
helped Ceceha Heinrich of Bryan put together
her lawn mower.
“They put together a push mower for me
because I can’t pull the string on the other
mower and they mowed the lawn,” Heinrich
said. “It’s been hard to find anyone to mow
the lawn lately.”
The group also moved a dog house for Hein
rich that she could not move herself.
“We had a smaller mobile home before and
when we got the double-wide trailer the dog
house was right up against the house,” she
said. “We couldn’t budge it ourselves.”
The Texas A&M Management Society
spent the day with Ira Mae Abbs of Bryan,
visiting with her and cleaning up her yard.
Like Crocker Hall, the Management Society
was also supposed to build a porch but did not
have the materials.
Shelly Page, Big Event coordinator for the
Management Society, said the group wished
they could have built the porch.
Page said about 15 people from her group
worked at Abbs’ house for five hours.
“We did some yard work, hung some
drapes and put together a party for her,”
Page said. “The grass was two-and-a-half
to three feet high. We had to chop it down
first before we could mow it.
Page said there was a tremendous
amount of work to be done in the yard.
They had 20 bags of trash and grass when
they were finished.
“I was afraid they would see the yard
and not want to do it, but everyone jumped
right in and we got it all done,” she said.
Page said this is the first time she has par
ticipated in the Big Event.
“What we did for her was great,” she
said. “Just for her to have us there to visit
with her and to do the things she wanted
done was great.
“As a group, it was wonderful to get every
one together and work as a team. It wasn’t
about being rewarded or getting our name out,
but doing something for someone else.”
Above: Shannon Jistel, a sophomore
chemical engineering major, dumps soil
into a compost pile at Sul Ross Elemen
tary School in Bryan.
Below: Members of Alpha Phi Omega turn
over composting piles at the school.
A. day working in the Big Event...
\ sprii’f.
lidays^
77840'
From top: (top) Kyle King, a senior construction science major, puts
the last nail in a porch he built with other National Association of
Homebuilders members; (middle) David Gunn, a senior construction
science major, puts a coat of paint on the porch; and (above) Jere
my Marshall, a freshman business administration major, helps Mrs.
Mainer install a window screen after workers cleaned her windows.
8 :30 a.m.
T h e
alarm
jolts me out
of sleep. I
rue the fact
that I got to
sleep a mere
six hours. I
slip on some clothes, brush my teeth and head
downstairs to meet the others.
• 8:38 a.m. I hit the benches outside the
dorm. The weather is perfect. I’m the first one
down, so I head across the street to buy a fruit
punch slurpee.
• 9:03 a.m. Everyone finally arrives, semi
alert and ready to go. There are about 20 of
us. We sit at the benches and go over the jobs
we’re doing and the places we’re going. Our
projects will include trimming trees, washing
windows and cutting grass.
* 9:24 a.m. We finally head out to the first
site. The 20 of us pile into two trucks and two
cars and hit the road. Heading south on Well
born Road, we pass Olsen Field, which is
packed. We wonder if there is a baseball tour
nament — later, we find out that it was the
pre-Big Event rally at Olsen Field, which we
missed. Oops.
* 9:33 a.m. Our caravan arrives at the first
house. It’s an old white house with a chain
link fence surrounding a yard with “Beware of
Dog” signs. The yard has several large trees
that need trimming.
Next to the front yard is another plot of
land conquered by an overgrowth of weeds
and a chicken coop in the back corner. The
chickens are scattered between the front yard
and the neighboring jungle.
Because of the “Beware of Dog” signs, we
are hesitant to go past the fence, even though
we can’t see an trace of a dog.
A neighbor comes over and volunteers to go
to the door. He knocks a few times, and an el
derly man answers.
We tell the homeowner that we are here to
do some lawn work. He says that he wouldn’t
mind having some of the trees trimmed and
the lot next door mowed. We gladly agree.
Seeing that there’s not enough work for 20
people, we leave four to do the job while the
rest of us head to the next site.
• 9:46 a.m. We arrive at the second site, a
red house with two trucks in the driveway.
The house belongs to a middle-aged man, his
father and their pets. They’re expecting us.
The weather is still nice and the trees in
the yard offer some shade. We begin washing
the house’s 15 windows, both inside and out.
• 10:47 a.m. We finish the work and clean
up. We are about to leave when the owners of
the house offer us sodas and pralines for our
effort. We agree to the snacks and take a little
break from working.
• 10:50 a.m. Our friends from the first site
arrive. They say the work went off without a
hitch. We get together and head out to the fi
nal work site.
• 10:54 a.m. We decide to grab something
to eat before going to the final house. While
we eat, a group heads back to campus to pick
up some supplies we’ll need.
• 11:34 a.m. Back to work. We pile into the
trucks, complaining that we all ate too much,
and head to the final house.
• 11:40 aum. We arrive at the house. It’s a
black-and-white duplex owned by a woman,
her daughter and mother. Our friends who
had gone for the supplies are already here.
There are several things to do.
Both the back and front yards need to be
mowed and edged, trees need to be trimmed
and some holes in the backyard need to be
filled. We’re also going to build a concrete path
spanning from the duplex’s front doors around
the to the driveway.
After an hour, the women in the house
bring us sodas. They’re a nice family and we
enjoy their company.
As each piece of work is finished, we begin
to clean up.
The grass that has been mowed and edged
is swept up. We dispose of the dirt that we dug
up while installing the concrete paths.
Eventually, everything is finished and we
all take a break in the shade. While we are
resting, a couple of people notice a dismantled
swing. In a few minutes, we put the swing
back together. The women thank us, saying
that they didn’t expect the swing to be fixed.
• 1:21 p.m. We thank the ladies for the re
freshments. Our work is finished and we pre
pare to leave.
We give the house a final look-over to make
sure we haven’t left anything. Finding noth
ing, we say goodbye, pile back into the cars
and head back home.
• 1:30 p.m. We arrive home sweaty and
tired. Even though we’re all exhausted, we
agree that the experience was fun and
worthwhile.