This year’s Big Event service project, held April 10, contributed to the 125 volunteer service hours some St. Edward’s University students are trying to earn in celebration of the university’s 125th anniversary.

“Big Event is a huge service event on campus, the biggest one we have,” junior Colleen White said.

Students, faculty, staff and alumni gathered at 9 a.m. in front of the Alumni Gym to take part in this year’s Big Event, sponsored by the Student Government Association.

After receiving a free breakfast and T-shirt, 230 volunteers of the 251 who signed up went in groups to 21 different sites.

Volunteers went to professional and residential sites near campus. The professional sites were Capital Area Food Bank, St. Ignatius Catholic Church, Zilker Botanical Gardens, Umlauf Sculpture Gardens, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and New Generation Day Care.

In addition to the professional sites, volunteers worked at 14 residential sites, homes in the Sherwood Oaks neighborhood close to St. Edward’s.

“The residential sites are all like yard word, planting flowers, trimming bushes, window cleaning and stuff,” Director of Service Krista Heiden, junior, said. “Mainly we got a lot of letters from elderly people in the neighborhood, who wrote in saying how they couldn’t do it themselves.”

Junior Julio Vazquez worked at one of the residential sites.

“We just worked on cleaning up the lawn, just picking up weeds and stuff for around three hours,” Vazquez said. “I felt like we contributed in a positive way because it was short, but we got a lot of stuff done.”

Sophomore Brady Faglie worked at St. Ignatius.

“We painted a couple of rooms and helped them out with that. It was very fulfilling,” Faglie said. “I really enjoyed it. I also got to know a lot of people that I didn’t know coming into the event.”

Junior Joseph Luedecke is a member of the student organization, To Write Love on Her Arms, which is dedicated to finding help for people struggling with depression, anxiety, self-injury and suicide. He and his group worked at New Generation Day Care.

“It was challenging, which was good. I was concerned we weren’t going to finish in time,” Luedecke said. “Serving just in general is something that I recommend, and this is great way to do it; it’s a safe way to do it.”

Junior Lauren May helped clean a backyard and build a garden wall at one of the residential sites.

“I’ve never seen this many people come out for Big Event,” May said. “I will totally be back next year. I think it’s an awesome cause. I hope it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.”

Volunteer groups started returning at 12:30 p.m. and were asked to fill out a survey, which Heiden said would be used to help improve the program in the future.

After filling out the survey, volunteers received a coupon to Cabo Bob’s for a free taco, burrito or salad and a drink for the duration of the [email protected]