By Heather Muh
WEST LONG BRANCH – The Big Event was aptly named.
This year’s edition of Monmouth University’s Big Event, the 15th annual, which is the university’s single largest community service project, took place Saturday, Oct. 25, and attracted more volunteers than ever before.
The Student Government Association (SGA) organizes the Big Event every year so that students and faculty members from various departments, teams and clubs can come together to give back to the communities they call home. Volunteers form teams and travel to different “worksites” around the West Long Branch, Long Branch, Ocean, Asbury Park and Deal area to clean up and help out. The worksites vary from food pantries and churches to litter removal from local parks and residential properties.
The Big Event has been held annually for 15 years, but this year was slightly different. During previous years, the event attracted about 400 volunteers who went to 25 to 30 worksites.
According to SGA Big Event Chair Alyssa Sardelli, a junior at Monmouth, this year’s event had more than 700 volunteers sign up for the 37 registered worksites.
“I think the event was a huge success,” Sardelli said after the event. “Not only did we have the highest volunteer and worksite sign-up count ever, but I’ve been receiving emails thanking us for our amazing help.”
One worksite that benefited from the help of the students was the Stella Maris Retreat Center in Long Branch. Sisters of the sorority Alpha Xi Delta spent the day at the location working on gardening and landscaping.
“These girls are fantastic,” said Sister Clare McNerney, a retired nun who is in charge of gardening and agriculture on the grounds. “They’ve been excellent and polite as can be.”
Members of Alpha Xi Delta found the event to be an extremely rewarding experience.
“We were able to accomplish tasks such as weeding, planting flowers and trimming trees,” said Ali Hart, a sophomore sorority sister. “Seeing how grateful Sister Clare was made the whole day and experience worthwhile.”
While some groups volunteered at places like Stella Maris, other groups spent their time cleaning up litter outside. Groups, such as Monmouth’s Outdoors Club and Alpha Kappa Psi fraternity, worked at Deal Lake all day.
“We helped pick up all the trash around the lake and had some fun kayaking as well,” said Mike Lopes, a senior at Monmouth and president of Alpha Kappa Psi. “It was great being able to help out the community.”
The school received positive feedback from representatives of numerous worksites praising the volunteers and the work they did.
One worksite in Ocean Township commended the students, saying they were “eager to do a great job.”
“Feedback like that is what continues to motivate SGA when it comes to organizing future editions of the Big Event,” said Vaughn Clay, the Monmouth University director of off-campus and commuter services who is also the SGA advisor. “The students of SGA are incredibly proud of their fellow Monmouth community members who devoted a day of their weekend to lending a helping hand to our neighbors.”
The planning for this year’s Big Event began over the summer. Sardelli contacted more than 100 different worksites to inform them of the event. “My committee and I worked very hard to make sure there were enough worksites for all of the volunteers, as well as spreading the word about the event and inspiring the Monmouth community to sign up,” she said.
Monmouth’s SGA President Ali Tuyahov felt that this year’s event was a success. “Alyssa did an amazing job with the Big Event this year,” she said. “Every year I just watch it get bigger and bigger.”
According to Sardelli, the Big Event was originally founded at Texas A&M University in 1982 and has since spread to colleges and universities across the country.
Monmouth University’s first Big Event was held in 2000 with only 125 volunteers and 11 worksites.
“The Big Event started as an idea 15 years ago that we got from Texas A&M University, and has become the single largest community service event on campus,” Tuyahov said. “It is nice that so many students care about going into the community and helping in one way or another.”
