Celebrating 10 years of The Big Event

By Kyle Hobstetter on April 16, 2019

Towson University celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Big Event by making this year’s iteration the biggest one yet.

The Big Event is TU’s largest day of community service, with this year’s edition featuring almost 2,000 student and alumni volunteers working at over 250 service sites through the Greater Baltimore area. The event is the largest of many that TU hosts throughout the year — and last year, volunteerism through student groups resulted in more than 1 million service hours around the community.

Volunteers ranged from members of different student organizations, TU’s Greek Life community, TU athletic teams and students who wanted to help out the local community.

For Chris Jensen, director of Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility at Towson University, he sees The Big Event as a way to show students the importance of giving back to a community.

“When students leave TU, they’re going to be part of their own communities, and we hope they continue this tradition giving to the community once they leave Towson University,” Jensen says. “We’re hoping that this shows them the work that they’ve learned at TU can continue across the world.”

The day started early in the morning, when volunteers flocked to SECU Arena to receive their assignments — along with complimentary gloves, water bottles and Big Event shirts.

Before volunteers went out into the community, they received words of encouragement from TU President Kim Schatzel, State Delegate Steve Lafferty and Vice President of Student Affairs Deb Moriarty.

Moriarty says her message was simple — she just wanted to thank students for taking time out of their weekend to help the local community. And after looking at the crowd of volunteers throughout SECU Arena, Moriarty says she feels a sense of pride to see how much the Big Event has grown over the past 10 years.

“Ten years ago we were basically just going into downtown Towson and helping with the Chamber of Commerce, and over the decade it’s continued to grow,” Moriarty says. “It was our students’ initiative that came back and said we can make this bigger and better. And to watch it grow makes me really proud of the students we have at TU who are so committed to his.”

Volunteer sites ranged from area homes, local parks, churches, businesses and even doing work for local neighborhood associations. One example of helping out local neighborhoods was the student organization Brotherhood. Members planted new flowers in the Knollwood community.

For Brotherhood, which is a student organization focused on giving a more positive experience for black males on TU’s campus, they wanted to lend a helping hand to the local community.

“It feels great, especially when we had members of the community stop by and tell us they appreciate the work were doing,” says Brotherhood member Kennard Boone, a senior mass communication major from Baltimore.

“It’s always best to give back. As college students it’s not always about partying and studying, but it’s also about helping the area we live in. If we can water the community a little bit, they can water us back.”

One of the more unique experiences was with the TU chapter of the Tri Delta Sorority, who helped clean up the Herring Run tributary stream located in the Knollwood neighborhood.

Because of excess rain, the stream flooded the local neighborhood and had been overrun with garbage. Not only did the students clean up the garbage, but also helped with the runoff by clearing out invasive species from the area.

As the students work, it’s not unusual for homeowners to come out and support the students. One of those homeowners was Tammy Cyzyk, who welled up with joy watching Tri Delta wade through the stream outside her house.

“It just warms my heart seeing all the students out and about doing a good thing. You can’t ask for anything more than that,” Cyzyk says. “And just to see them give back out of the goodness of the heart is just fantastic to see.”

One the most impressive aspects of the Big Event is the entire process was student run and organized. Students helped get in touch with sites, organized the schedule and worked with student groups to volunteer.

For Corey Holland, coordinator of Community Outreach at TU, he gets to work first-hand with the student directors. There he watches as students work for months, give up their weekends and work long hours to help get this event ready for just one day.

“I’ve been working with them literally since September so to see the Big Event come to fruition is a really, really good feeling,” Holland says. “And these students are just volunteers, so they don’t get paid. They are doing this because this is just important to them, and it’s just fantastic to see.”

Aleah Disney, a senior speech language, pathology and audiology major from Baltimore, was the student director for this year’s Big Event. It was her fourth year volunteering and her third year on the Big Event board.

After spending many long nights in the administration building and spending many weekends on campus, it was bittersweet for Disney to watch the event come to an end.

And while she admits that the past few months have been nerve-wracking, she wouldn’t have given up the opportunity to help the local community for anything.

“It’s a little weird to think in a couple hours I’m going to be done with the Big Event because it’s been a really part of my life my four years at TU,” Disney says. “We started planning everything in the summer, and it’s weird in one day it’s all over.

“It’s been such a great experience, and I’ve learned a lot through my four years and it’s just been amazing to be able to make this difference.”

This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel’s priorities for Towson University: TU Matters to Maryland and Culture of Philanthropy.