03/25/2025
It’s coming. And it’s big.
The Big Event, a student-run, communitywide civic-engagement project will take place on Sunday, April13.
With a total of 323 student volunteers signed up to participate, registration allowing organizers to match groups with the 44 identified job sites ends today. However, both volunteers and sites will continue to be accepted, and both numbers are expected to grow, according to Eve Cisneros, event coordinator for the Student Government Association.
The university’s Student Government Association (SGA) is once again organizing the event, which became a Cortland tradition in 2015 by sending hundreds of SUNY Cortland students out into the Cortland community, cleaning, raking, painting and otherwise sprucing up a mix of private residences and businesses in their town.
The Big Event is the SGA’s largest annual initiative.
“The Big Event is important to SUNY Cortland because it allows us to build bridges between the university and the community,” Cisneros said. “It is important to me because volunteer work is something I hold close to my heart and will always encourage others to do.
On April 13, volunteers should check in at Park Center Alumni Arena between 9 and 9:30 a.m., where there will be a light continental breakfast. Participants will then organize into groups and depart for work sites through their own transportation at 9:45 a.m. The Big Event will run through 3 p.m.
Volunteer work may include raking leaves, cleaning up trash, painting, gardening or any other requests SGA receives from community members.
Volunteers do not need to bring their own equipment. SGA will supply tools, as will individual work sites.
Members of Greek organizations, student clubs, athletic teams and club sports is are once again committing to the annual initiative, Cisneros said. However, many interested students without any group affiliations have also signed up.
Founded at SUNY Cortland by Ashlee Prewitt ’14, the student club Actively Involved in the Community (AIC) was previously responsible for organizing this event each spring. More than 400 volunteers participated in The Big Event's 2015 Cortland debut.