On Saturday morning, more than 900 students participated in Oxford’s biggest day of community service.
Volunteers arrived at 8 a.m. at the Pavilion for the kickoff ceremony before heading out to their project sites. During the kickoff ceremony, John Oxford of Renasant Bank said next year he would like to see a rivalry Big Event held between Mississippi State and Ole Miss as a competition to see which school will have the most volunteers.
The community-wide service event covered 148 project sites throughout Oxford City and Lafayette County including both private property and community projects. Student volunteer efforts consisted of activities like landscaping and indoor cleaning at St. Peter’s Church, food drives at Lovepacks and cleaning local parks with Oxford Mayor George “Pat” Patterson.
Melissa Ramsey, Big Event co-director, said the event went seamlessly this year and the event was able to make progress with coordinating volunteers compared to previous years.
Student volunteering though Big Event chips off old paint from Skipwith Cottage. (Photo By: Ariel Cobbert)
“This was actually the first time we have been able to send at least two volunteers to every project we had registered, which is a huge deal,” Ramsey said.
The Big Event volunteers helped beautify the Oxford community in different capacities. Volunteers participated in projects ranging from gardening and painting walls, to placing flowers on cemeteries and picking up trash.
“We do pretty much anything you can think of that needs to be done in Oxford,” Ramsey said.
According to Ramsey, the Big Event received incredible amounts of positive feedback from both participants and project hosts. Volunteers filtered in after the projects were complete with several heartwarming stories about the impact of their service. Many project hosts sent in hand-written letters expressing their gratefulness to Ole Miss students for their time spent volunteering. They also received several calls from project hosts already requesting to participate in next year’s event.
“The community really appreciates the students coming out to volunteer for three hours to help in whatever area they need help in,” Ramsey said. “We are so thankful for Ole Miss students for being open-minded and coming out to give up their Saturday morning to do this.”
Justin Cosby gathers weeds in an Oxford resident’s back yard. (Photo by: Ariel Cobbert)
Amber Fulton, senior managerial finance and accountancy major, volunteered in the Plein Air community in Taylor. Her group assisted with various roadside cleaning and landscaping projects throughout the community. Fulton said she was surprised by the overwhelming kindness she received from the project hosts.
“The people we volunteered for were really appreciative and even bought our lunch at Carter’s Grocery after we finished our project,” Fulton said. “It was an amazing experience helping give back to such a loving, sweet community.”
Allison Bradshaw, senior political science major, said she most enjoyed working and getting to know other volunteers.
“I feel like the planning staff stepped up their game this year to put together a wonderful program,” Bradshaw said. “I liked the added element of working on mixed teams so that I was able to meet and bond with other students at the university. It was great to see the positive impact that our efforts can have in the Oxford community.”
