Service is always a ‘Big Event’
This is about my experience with The Big Event Group 22. I ran into Group 22 in front of Chadron High School, as they grappled with piles of mulch. I was covering the day of volunteerism for The Eagle newspaper, visiting jobs sites and live-tweeting. When I stopped by, Group 22 had their work cut out for them. The job site, a deceptively small piece of landscaping, was dotted with miniature conifers. The volunteers were trying to spread dark mulch over the landscaping fabric. Gamely, they clawed with narrow rakes at the piles of mulch, or rather the dried and twisted roots. The mulch stayed put. The branches’ natural weave formed a huge, tangled mass. Yet, the volunteers worked on.
Group 22 started the day at a disadvantage. Although organizers assigned 14 people to the job, only five showed up. Three of them stayed at Group 22’s original location: the Ridgeview Church Job-site. The other two, Haley Alvarado, sophomore of Alliance, and Athena Tarin, freshman of Lyman, followed site leader David Nesheim to the school. Nesheim also brought his 8-year-old son, Myles. When I arrived to take photos, Myles climbed on top of the mulch pile and attacked it with his shovel. The shovel didn’t even penetrate the Gordian Knot of twigs, but he still struck a pose and said he was king of the mulch mountain. Alongside him, Alvarado and Tarin worked in the afternoon sun. After I took photos, I left the intrepid four to tackle the unmovable mulch. I felt guilty, since my job involved tweeting and there’s, mulching, but I shrugged it off and left to tour more of The Big Event.
After I documented as many volunteers as I could find, I drove back down 10th street. I passed Chadron High School and saw Group 22 still fighting the mulch. I noticed that in two hours, they hadn’t progressed much. My phone vibrated. My friend had just invited me to sushi. I imagined the sweet asian goodness, but then looked back at the perspiring volunteers. I pulled over. When I rejoined them, Tom Smith, who had lead a different work site, was now working with the team. His daughter Jackson, age 10, had seen Group 22 as Smith drove her home from their own site. She noticed the huge mulch pile and told her father they had to help.
“[She] has been curious about volunteer work,” Smith said, “Hence, The Big Event was a good way for her to volunteer and also be part of a team.”
The team, now two-and-a-half members stronger, pressed on. The landscaping area, although small, seemed very opposed to being covered by mulch. As clouds rolled over the sky, I pitched in, hand-scooping mulch into my ineffectual shovel and tossing it around trees. I was amazed with Group 22. Even though they’d been battling the same 180 square feet of mulch, they were still upbeat. As we noticed the mulch steadily spreading out, the group’s mood improved further. We grappled and clawed, and the obstinate mulch slowly feathered out.
We finished just as the first raindrops sprinkled the job site. It was now covered, and where there used to be only black tarp, there was blood, sweat, and finally, mulch. The moral of this dirt-smudged story is that two CSC educators, two students, and two children worked for two hours, all because someone asked them. They said they’d help, and they did. Smith and his daughter didn’t have to stop, but they noticed a group in need and they stepped up. Nine students, nine unfortunate representatives of CSC’s work ethic, did not step up. They probably slept in, or forgot their job, or accidentally went home for the weekend. Either way, these students were out-volunteered by workers half their age: Myles and Jackson. These truant nine were shown-up by their professors and their peers. Sure, Group 22 just spread mulch, but they also honored their promises. They stopped to help their fellow volunteers. They simply gave, and received in return a sore back and an illogical hatred of landscaping. Oh, and remember the three members of Group 22 who stayed behind at Ridgeveiw Bible Church? Brendon MacKearney, Troy Gregory, and Kolton Brown stayed there until 5 p.m., two hours after the mulchers finished, to scrap paint. Chadron is lucky to have volunteers like Group 22, because even though spreading mulch is not a big event, it’s enough.