About 220 Syracuse University students took advantage of Saturday’s warm weather when they volunteered in the city’s West Side as part of an annual community service project.

The project, known as The Big Event, is put on by OrangeSeeds, a leadership empowerment program for first-year students at SU. It was the culmination of a year’s worth of development and planning by OrangeSeeds members, who are called “seeds,” and is entirely planned by students, said Nick Jannuzzi, a freshman public relations major and member of OrangeSeeds.

The event was arranged by 25 “seeds,” who are divided up into three committees: marketing, community relations and logistics. This year’s event focused on parks and other locations on the West Side.

Jannuzzi, a member of the marketing committee, said they were happy with the overall turnout since The Big Event fell on the same weekend as other community service events such as Greek Week and a Habitat for Humanity opportunity.

Volunteers spent Saturday afternoon working at locations including Skiddy Park, Burnet Park, Lewis Park, the West Side Learning Center and the Samaritan Center, said Chris Bordash, a freshman marketing major who was a part of the logistics committee. The number of students volunteering at each site ranged from as many as 40 students at the West Side Learning Center to as few as six who were sent to the Samaritan Center, he said.

The work done at each site varied, but much of it focused on cleanup and beautification. John Thomey, a freshman public relations major and community relations committee member, spent the afternoon at Lipe Art Park, an outdoor art venue. Thomey said the volunteers at that location picked up trash, did landscape work and put up a tarp for one of the art structures.

“We were fortunate that we got amazing weather and I think everyone enjoyed being outside and helping out the community,” he said.

Thomey said everyone at his site had a lot of fun, adding that the work they did will have long-term benefits — if students go back in the future, they will still be able to see their work beautifying the park.

Aysha Seedat, a sophomore policy studies major and OrangeSeeds executive board member, worked at Fowler High School doing beautification work. She said many former “seeds” end up volunteering for The Big Event each year.

“I would say the event was a success for sure,” Seedat said. “The most challenging part of the day was really getting into the nitty-gritty type work. We did a lot of raking and it ended up being very physically demanding.”

Before being bussed to their respective work sites, the volunteers and OrangeSeeds members gathered in the Halmi Room of Newhouse III to listen to a speech from Tiffany Steinwert, dean of Hendricks Chapel. Steinwert said she grew up one generation removed from poverty, and she spoke about how valuable volunteering can be.

“Volunteering is amazing,” she said. “Without volunteers like you, nothing in the world would change.”

Those participating in The Big Event echoed Steinwert when talking about the importance of giving back to the community.

“You can see we’re pretty well off on the Hill, but there are people right in the area who don’t have the same privileges,” Jannuzzi said. “It lets the community know we care about them. We’ll be here four years but the community will still be around after we’re gone.”

Published on April 14, 2014 at 2:01 am

Contact Brett: blsamuel@syr.edu | @Brett_Samuels27