MURFREESBORO — MTSU
students made sure a heavily used local green space was covered in blue over
the weekend as dozens volunteered to do their part for this year’s BIG Event at
Old Fort Park.
One of
the nation’s largest one-day community service projects involving college
students, this year’s BIG Event was held Saturday (April 16) in conjunction
with the National Park Day centennial, with volunteers helping to cut down
invading flora, plant new trees and remove trash from the area around Old Fort
Park.
The MTSU
Student Government Association, Center for Student Involvement and Leadership,
MTSU Stormwater Program and the United Way of Rutherford and Cannon Counties
were among key partners for the event, as well as the city of Murfreesboro and
the Stones River National Battlefield.
Hundreds
of MTSU students have participated in the BIG Event for the last several years,
helping the community by painting and cleaning buildings, delivering meals to
senior citizens, building a children’s play area and organizing donations for a
local mission.
MTSU
student Myeshia Burchett, a senior nursing major from Memphis, Tennessee, and
SGA’s philanthropic coordinator, said this year the SGA decided that rather
than having students spread throughout the community for multiple events, students
would come together to focus on a single activity “to have a bigger impact.”
“I love
serving and have always been very involved in the community,” said Burchett,
who spent the morning making sure students registered, filled out liability
forms and were assigned to their proper crew leaders.
Student
volunteers then joined other community volunteers in Saturday’s cleanup, with
more than 400 people participating. The result was almost 9,000 invasive plants
cut and treated, 65 pounds of trash removed and 246 trees planted.
Freshman
Austin Hardy, a marketing major from White House, Tennessee, joined a group of
several friends dispersed among about 200 MTSU student volunteers. Admittedly
not a big fan of community service while in high school, Hardy is glad that
MTSU has provided opportunities for him to give back.
“It’s
kind of cool helping out the community,” he said, sporting the blue “Live
United” T-shirt handed out to all student volunteers. “It gives students a
bigger picture … that it’s not just all about me. Instead of just living my own
life and doing my own thing, to help out people, and not just people, but the
Earth too.”
Jackie
Victory, director of the Office of Student Organizations and Service in
the Division of Student Affairs, said such events are a key part of MTSU’s
Connection Point program, which awards students with a series of buttons for
their participation in campus activities.
“Connection
Point is all about getting our students to get engaged and be apart of the
campus life and the campus culture that we have,” Victory said.
SGA
President Lindsey Pierce has participated in the BIG Event since her freshman
year, previously serving as a site leader.
“I think
it’s important for the students to give back to the community that they’re
surrounded by,” she said. “I mean they give so much to our campus as it is.”
Cynthia
Allen with the Stormwater Program explained to students that the cleanup would
help protect the water flowing into Lytle Creek, which runs through a portion
of Old Fort Park and is part of the Stones River Watershed.
“We’re
trying to protect the waterways for recreation and wildlife,” she said. “The
volume of work couldn’t happen without the volunteers, so we’re very thankful
for you.”
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