(March 17, 2015)

Centenary community plans for BIG Event 8 March 21

SHREVEPORT, LA — Continuing a spring tradition, Centenary students, faculty, and staff will gather on Saturday, March 21 for BIG Event 8. BIG Event is a student-led day of service that allows Centenary to connect with its neighbors and give back to the surrounding community.

Big Event
Students paint a neighborhood house during Big Event 6

"We are very excited to be hosting the eighth annual BIG Event here at Centenary," said LaToya Hemphill, Assistant Director for Community Engagement. "This event has truly become an established campus tradition that students look forward to, and this year's BIG Event board has worked very hard to reach out to our neighbors in the surrounding community to make this a beneficial day for all involved."

Volunteers will assist Highland-area residents and organizations in a variety of ways, including raking, trimming hedges and bushes, painting, and washing shutters and windows. One group of volunteers at the Martin Luther King Health Center will make a dramatic impact through a day-long painting and planting project in the Center's Community Garden. Other volunteers will work at Community Renewal International's Yellow House and at Common Ground.

Members of the Centenary and Shreveport-Bossier community who are interested in volunteering for BIG Event projects can register online as an individual or a team.

Check-in and breakfast for volunteers begins at 7:30 a.m. in Kilpatrick Auditorium, and projects will begin at various locations at 8:30 a.m. Following the completion of volunteer projects at noon, participants are invited to the BIG Event Carnival at Centenary's Jones Rice Field.

BIG Event, the nation's largest one-day, student-run service project in the nation, originated at Texas A&M University and has since expanded to more than 110 campuses, including Centenary. Centenary has organized its own BIG Event since 2008, and a student Executive Board spearheads the planning for this service day that has attracted more than 200 volunteers each year.

For more information, contact thebigevent@centenary.edu, and visit centenary.edu/bigevent to register online.