The Big Event's 15th Anniversary!

Our 21-member Exec Team and 145 Committee members are all Virginia Tech student volunteers that work year-round to ensure that The Big Event is a success.

The Big Event at Virginia Tech is a student-run community service effort that has grown into the 2nd largest of its kind in the nation.

Every spring, thousands of students, faculty, and staff come together to complete hundreds of community service projects throughout Blacksburg, Christiansburg and the New River Valley.

Starting in 2002, The big Event at Virginia Tech has grown exponentially. The 2002 Big Event saw about 475 volunteers with 60 projects. Last year, The 2015 Big Event saw 8,050 volunteers complete 1,043 projects.

The Big Event: One Big Day. One Big Thanks.

Message from the Directors
Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) is ingrained in each and every student at Virginia Tech. The Big Event allows students an opportunity to live out Ut Prosim in many different ways. We have an executive team of 21 students, a committee of over 145 students and over 8,000 student volunteers. Combined, we are able to complete an astonishing 32,000 hours of community service in just one day with over 1,000 projects in Blacksburg, Christiansburg and The New River Valley.

One of my favorite memories from The Big Event was meeting Sharon, a Blacksburg resident of over 30 years. Sharon has participated in The Big Event for the past five years and relies upon the help of volunteers every spring to mulch, weed, and clean her yard. Sharon suffers from arthritis and cannot care for her property as she used to. The Big Event helps her to keep her yard beautiful and meet some great college students in the process. Hearing stories like this really show the difference that The Big Event can make on someone’s life. We truly believe that the town and university’s relationship is so positive due to the great scale and scope of services that The Big Event offers to local residents.

As a student-run event, we have costs of more than $45,000 each year. Local residents have come to rely on our help and they look forward to meeting bright, energetic volunteers each Spring. We provide all of the necessary tools for projects and are looking to help even more local residents on April 9, 2016!

Our costs come from rentals for the day-of, program supplies, tools, postage, publicity, copying/printing, storage rental, security, office supplies and t-shirts. While our goal is to grow each year, that is not possible without a growth of funds as well. Every donation, no matter the size, will help us achieve this.

These projects range from simple gardening to building fences and more labor- intensive tasks. It is our goal to simply say “Thank You” to the people of the New River Valley who make Blacksburg such an inviting and fun place to live.

Thank you for your consideration, we hope to have you as part of the team! Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions that you may have.

In the spirit of Ut Prosim,

Steven Vanderloo '16 and Rahul Kulkarni '16
Co-Directors

Ellie Helton '16
Assistant Director