By NICK BUDD
Hays Post
Despite a little bit of rain Thursday, almost 100 students from Fort Hays State University performed community service around the city of Hays as part of The Big Event, a campus-wide community service project put together by the university’s Student Government Association. Some of the service activities included sorting clothes at Arc Thrift Shop, playing games with seniors at a retirement home, picking up trash around various parts of the campus district, and other community service activities.
“We just wanna make a difference and say thank you to the Hays community that has supported the school,” co-coordinator Noelle Husmann said.

Throughout the day, approximately 96 students participated in the various community service projects. Each year, more students take part in The Big Event, Husmann said.
“I think each year that we have The Big Event, word gets around and it grows bigger and bigger on campus,” she said. “In particular, the Greek community has helped out quite a bit this year, because it’s taking place during Greek Week, so we’ve had a lot of sorority and fraternity members come out and help us.”
Husmann also noted the weather might have dampened the turnout some, but the groups did get all the outdoor projects completed.
“We did some paint scraping at the Hays Community Assistance Center, some yard work for the First Methodist Church, and various sidewalk and campus clean up projects,” Husmann said.
She said some of the biggest takeaways come after the volunteering is complete.
“When you’ve been thinking about all these projects over the past couple of weeks, and now they’re actually happening, that’s a great feeling,” Husmann said. “Especially when the organizations that we are volunteering for, they are calling me on the phone saying ‘We got everything done, and we are so happy that you guys could come help us today.’ They also sometimes tell us to keep them in mind for future volunteering events.
“Overall, it’s just a really great feeling.”