Aggie Football, students roll up their sleeves for annual Big Event

Since 1982, Texas A&M’s Big Event has been a way for students to say “thank you” to the Bryan-College Station community.

The event is the largest one-day, student-run service project in the nation.

Since 1982, Texas A&M’s Big Event has been a way for students to say “thank you” to the Bryan-College Station community. Now the service project has grown immensely, with students volunteering at homes, parks, and nonprofits across the area.

At the Stevener home in College Station, volunteers cleaned windows, cleared the pool, and helped with outside clean-up.

“For us, it’s a time to spend watching young people who have goals accomplish them and give their time for a stranger. That’s pretty special,” exclaimed homeowner Judy Stevener.

For homeowners, the help can make a big difference. For students, it’s a chance to give back and connect with the people who call this community home.

“You walk in before, and if you’re doing yard work the yard is a little messy, and by the end, you look around and it looks not professionally done but it looks a lot cleaner,” volunteer Joseph Diarra told KBTX. “Being able to see the work that you did is really gratifying”

After 42 years, Big Event has inspired more than 100 universities across the nation to host it and show the same gratitude toward their own communities.

At Twin City Mission, the Aggie Football team spent the day pitching in around the shelter. The team split up into eight groups and went around the shelter to help clean up the playground, cafe, and donation warehouse.

Twin City Mission’s Lindsey Smart said the relationship with the Aggies is really meaningful to the community.

“We have had a long relationship with the football team. Twin City Mission has had them come for the last 15 years,” said Smart. “So today, this is really meaningful because of history but also because when they come, it brings hope into this campus.”

Also helping was the twelfth man, Nana Boadi-Owusu.

“A big factor in our team and our program that coach Elko emphasized is giving back to this community,” Boadi-Owusu added. “You know, obviously I’m the twelfth man, but the twelfth man is all of College Station. All those people that support us. So, it’s always important to give back to those people that support us in our times in our games and stuff.”

This was the 15th year that Twin City Mission and A&M have teamed up to give back to the community.