DSU student Nicholas Bobo helps spruce up the landscaping at the Mississippi State Extension Center.CLEVELAND, Miss. — The second annual Big Green Event took place last weekend, as Delta State University students pitched in on projects around the Cleveland area. 123 students helped at 14 project sites for a combined 369 hours of community service.
Student Government Association President Lucia Chacon said, “The Big Green Event is a great opportunity for us to give back to the Cleveland community who is always so supportive of our needs. We appreciate every single person involved in making this event happen, our fellow students who volunteered their time, as well as all community members who kindly submitted a Project Site Request and guided us through their project this weekend. SGA wouldn’t be able to host this yearly event without everyone’s help.”
Students assembled at the stadium Saturday morning beginning at 8:00 a.m. for a free breakfast and remarks by Chacon and DSU Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. H. Edward Lovin.
Shortly after 9:00 a.m., students dispersed to the project sites to begin work. Groups went to the Cleveland Public Library for yard work and window washing, picked up trash downtown along the walking trail, took down an old fence at Cleveland Central Middle School, and helped with yardwork and spring cleaning at several other sites. A group helped keep the trash picked up at the Crosstie Arts Festival, which was being held on the grounds of the Bolivar County Courthouse Saturday. Another group tended to the DSU Wiley Community Garden on the outskirts of campus. Others were deployed to Morrison Chapel, the Miss. State Extension Center, the Women’s Resource Center, and the Indywood Estate Personal Care Home.
Lovin said, “As the culminating event of the Student Government Associations term of service, The Big Green Event is a great way for our students to give back to Delta State, Cleveland, and the greater Bolivar County community. I commend our students for giving of their time and energy into a project envisioned, created, and executed by students to improve our community.”
