Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
University of Montana students to host 'Big Event' day of service and campus festival
Loading...
Summary
University of Montana students will run a community service day, the 'Big Event,' on Saturday, April 25, pairing two-hour neighborhood projects with a 5 p.m. campus music festival featuring student performers, vendors and donated raffle prizes.
Jenny, host of the Heart of Missoula radio show, interviewed Devin Carpenter, director for new student success at the University of Montana, about the university’s first local iteration of the Big Event, a student-run day of service that began at Texas A&M in the 1980s and now is used by more than 100 colleges nationwide.
Carpenter said the UM event is scheduled for Saturday, April 25. Students will gather on the Oval for a 1:30 p.m. kickoff before teams travel to nearby homes and partner organizations for roughly two hours of volunteer work, then return to campus for a festival starting at 5:00 p.m. Carpenter described the program’s motto as "first we serve, then we celebrate." He said organizers are prioritizing projects close to campus for the inaugural year and plan to expand the geographic range in future years.
Organizers have worked with neighborhood and campus partners, including the University District and the Heart of Missoula neighborhood councils, and have compiled a list of projects ranging from courtyard flower-bed cleanups by the Davidson Honors College to painting the M on campus and interior painting at the Western Montana LGBTQ+ Community Center. Typical volunteer groups will be two to six students, though some partners with larger needs may take dozens of volunteers, Carpenter said. He recommended hosts provide on-site tools for projects such as painting; the university has also begun purchasing tools it expects to reuse annually.
After the service period, the celebration will feature student performers and bands made up of current students, alumni or staff; named acts include Shark Buffalo, Apocalypticsick and the SCURFs. A local DJ, Pandara, will host. The Advocates, the student ambassador organization that runs the Big Sky Experience, will operate a vendor market with more than 30 sellers. Carpenter announced a donation from Bedrock Sandals that will enter volunteer students into a raffle for five pairs of sandals. Six food trucks will serve the event from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m.
Carpenter said the deadline to submit a project had passed for this year but that the event will return next year, likely the weekend before finals. He encouraged volunteers to sign up via the University of Montana Big Event web page and noted that City Council member Mike Nugent is scheduled to speak briefly at the kickoff about campus-community relations.
The radio segment closed with host Jenny inviting organizations to contact the show to publicize local events and reminding listeners where to find the program online.
