UVA Student-Volunteers Make Community Service a ‘Big Event’

Many nonprofit organizations and individuals in the Charlottesville area have a wish list of projects they don’t have the time and resources to finish. With the help of hundreds of University of Virginia students, they checked a few projects off those lists after Saturday’s “Big Event,” a nationwide day of community service.

Madison House, UVA’s student volunteer center, brought together 330 student volunteers who fanned out to nearly 40 nonprofit organizations and residences around Charlottesville and Albemarle County. The Big  Event encourages the UVA student body to serve neighbors as well as local organizations that work tirelessly to improve Charlottesville.

The volunteers worked on a range of jobs, from mulching playgrounds and planting flowers at the Barrett Day Care Center to fixing bicycles at Community Bikes to renovating displays at the Virginia Discovery Museum. At the JABA Mary Williams Community Senior Center, located in the historic Jefferson School City Center, students wielded paintbrushes and mops to help spruce up the place.

It’s a way “to just say ‘thank you’ to the community for making Charlottesville, this college town, a great place to go to school,” said program director and Ph.D. student Katelyn Ahern.