The Big Event is a community service event where college students spend a day completing volunteer projects for local residents as a way to say “Thank You” to the community. The event started at Texas A&M University and has now spread to over 100 colleges nationwide. Dozens of student governments organize The Big Event each year as one of their largest service programs.
We interviewed William Nereson, the director of The Big Event at Texas A&M, to find out more about this project.
Please tell us a little bit about who you are: your role with The Big Event, your year, your major, any other background info you’d like to share.
I am an Industrial Distribution major from Boerne, Texas, and a member of the Class of 2014. I have a twin brother. I have had the opportunity to be involved with The Big Event for all four years of college. I started my time in The Big Event as a Staff Assistant. For this year, I have served as the Director of The Big Event.
What is The Big Event? How did the event go in 2014?
The Big Event is the largest student-run service project in the nation. We had 20,503 students participate in The Big Event at Texas A&M in 2014. They completed almost 2,036 jobs in the community.
The mission of the Big Event is to say “Thank You” to the community for their support of the students of Texas A&M, as well as to unify the students of A&M. Each year The Big Event has experienced significant growth and this year it increased in size by almost 20%.
The Big Event has also spread to almost 110 schools across the nation and even internationally to schools in Italy, Germany, Spain, and Pakistan. The Big Event 2014 went incredibly well and everything is credited to our amazing Staff. With almost 220 Staff Assistants, 40 Committee members, and 10 Execs this organization has an incredible impact across the A&M campus.
How did The Big Event get started?
The Big Event began in 1982 with a guy named Joe Nussbaum. He started The Big Event with the vision of bringing all the student organizations that have a service project together to perform their projects on the same day. Originally, Joe and others didn’t know what to call this new project so they just called it The Big Event and planned to change the name later. Soon the name stuck and it has now become one of the most hallowed traditions at Texas A&M.
How did you get involved with The Big Event?
I have been involved with The Big Event for all four years of college. I started my time in The Big Event as a Staff Assistant. After serving in that role for one year, I applied to be on a Committee.
For my junior year I knew I wanted to continue with The Big Event so I interviewed for an Exec position and was selected to serve on the Outreach Committee. The purpose of Outreach was to spread The Big Event to schools across the nation. After an extremely successful year, I knew The Big Event was my passion. I wanted to continue to serve and so I felt the push to lead. After going through an intensive application process I was selected as Director of The Big Event. It’s an incredible honor that has defined my time at Texas A&M.
What are the major steps involved in planning The Big Event? What other groups are involved?
Most people think The Big Event simply needs students, tools, and jobs to operate, but the complexity of The Big Event rivals that of many businesses. It involves fundraising almost $120,000, recruiting a 280-person staff, maintaining a distinct culture within the organization, and putting on major events such as Gala (220 families and people attend for our fall fundraiser), the One Big Day Conference (where almost 130 delegates from across the nation attend to learn about The Big Event), the Night Before Banquet (for almost 400 people), the Fall Retreat, the Spring Retreat, the Exec Event, etc… From recruiting residents to submit jobs across the community, to recruiting students on campus, to contacting national media, the inner workings of The Big Event are extremely complex. After adding up the hours it takes for our entire staff to plan The Big Event, it is calculated that if one person were to work 18 hours per day, every single day, with no breaks, it would take them almost 11 years to put on The Big Event.
What are the biggest challenges in planning The Big Event?
The biggest challenge in planning The Big Event is to maintain a strict timeline. Fundraising must be completed on a certain time frame in order to purchase 20,000 T-shirts for students. Job sites must be set up on time in order to match students to jobs. Also, with 280 people in the organization, holding people accountable for their work can be a large load for execs and committee leaders to bear.
One of the other big challenges is that there are people who do not completely understand our mission. Many think we exist as a service project to serve those of low socioeconomic status. However, we actually exist to say “Thank You” to all, regardless of their status in life. They could have a large or small house, but we still say “Thank You” to them because they are involved in our community.
How did The Big Event spread to other schools? Why do you think The Big Event has been adopted by so many colleges?
The Big Event spread to many other schools because it is an idea that people are passionate about. We have an incredible staff that is excited about their work.
Spreading to other universities started small but grew from year to year. Now with almost 110 universities holding The Big Event, the ultimate goal is to unite all these schools to perform their Big Event on the same day, under the same logo, and ultimately the same T-shirt, for what we like to call The One Big Day. It’s a vision that excites people. And now, with international expansion, we are asking schools to work with their study-abroad departments to bring The Big Event around the world. We have a vision that someday will impact the entire world. It’s been adopted by so many colleges because the idea of saying “Thank You” and expressing gratitude to others is important.
For other colleges that are considering running The Big Event, what advice would you give them? What lessons have you learned?
I would refer to the onebigthanks.tamu.edu website. Go to the “Starting a Big Event” tab. Under this tab you can learn anything you could ever wish to know about The Big Event. Most people think their event will start out with 10,000 people but this is usually not the case. You must grow, develop the event as a tradition, and ingrain selfless service into the core values of your university. If people don’t value service, the event will not grow.
The following is a letter I wrote to our Staff after we had completed The Big Event that sums up what I have learned from the experience:
Your Charge — From William Nereson:
Keep serving until you’ve changed the world. But, at the end of it all, you’ll find you may have changed yourself even more.
The Big Event isn’t Big because of our numbers. It is Big because it is an idea. An idea that one day you learn to do The Big Event every day of your life. That, in reality, the small events in life may just become The Big Ones, or those Big Days when all you can say is “One Big Thanks” to the community/family so close to you. It’s an idea that to serve is to lead, to sacrifice is to succeed, and to give is to gain. “He is no fool who gives up what you cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Who you are today is who you are becoming. Your thoughts will determine your actions, and your actions will determine your character and your character your destiny. History cares not an iota for the rank or title a man has borne, nor the office he has held, but only for the quality of his deeds and the character of his mind and heart. I hope your eyes have now seen through The Big Event what many wait so long to begin: how to be a servant-leader. We all can lead because we all can serve. Soon, every day will be an adventure, and a “Big Event.” “You make a living by what you get, you make a life by what you give.”
That now, the small ways to serve have been humbly altered into big ways to impact lives. That to have true influence you must serve, you must sacrifice, and you must rise to the charge. The way you serve today will shake the foundations of the earth and reverberate into the realms of eternity. “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory lies with the Lord.” So Daily; Let us do; The Big Event.
Until next time, when we change the world again.