By Tony Pennington

Transcript Staff Writer

If University of Oklahoma senior Josh Davis is tired, he is hiding it well.

It has been nearly a year since Davis, 22, began his preparations for the eighth annual The Big Event, a community service effort conducted by OU students. Throughout the long hours, Davis, chair of the activity, has assembled an 80-person event staff, recruited about 4,100 students, faculty and staff volunteers, raised funds, attracted sponsors, approved project sites and secured the necessary supplies.

At last count The Big Event required 546 pairs of work gloves, 87 shovels, 56 soil and 75 leaf rakes, 107 paint brushes, about 100 gallons of paint and 71 flats of flowers.

The tools may be taken care of, but there still is plenty of work left before the Saturday morning kickoff. Wearing a baseball cap and this year’s The Big Event T-shirt Wednesday morning in the Molly Shi Boren Ballroom of the Oklahoma Memorial Union, Davis and several of his staff members spoke with new and existing volunteers.

Davis kept his energy levels high with each participant. But when he stepped away from the signup tables, Davis, in his fourth year with The Big Event, was anxious and exhausted.

“It has been many, many, long hours of work,” the health and exercise science major said. “It also was a lot of patience and understanding. This Saturday, it will all be worth it.”

The Big Event began as a student-led initiative at Texas A&M University in 1982. The idea was to give back to the Bryan-College Station community. The concept has been applied to other universities including OU in 1999. Each year OU students, staff and faculty members provide services to non-profit and community-based organizations in Norman, Oklahoma City and surrounding communities. Projects typically involve painting, repairs, landscaping and cleanups.

While they cannot accommodate every request, Davis said each of the 145 sites was worthy of attention.

“There is a need for us to give back to those groups and organizations that help others,” he said. “It’s really important every now and then to say thank you to the community for putting up with the university.”

That spirit also is present at the OU Health Sciences Center where Kristen Torkelson is the chair. Torkelson, 25, a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in public health, is a veteran of The Big Event. She has been involved since her undergraduate days at the Norman campus.

“I can’t imagine not being involved with The Big Event,” she said. “I feel like it has become a part of me. I have seen what great things it can do for the community, and I want to help positively impact those communities wherever I go.”

This will be the fifth time OUHSC has hosted The Big Event. In previous years, the campus has conducted a health fair, but organizers wanted to shift toward a more hand-on experience.

“We have worked to model our Big Event after Norman’s,” Torkelson said. “Our student volunteers could literally walk to their job site and make a positive, immediate impact on their community.”