Every spring semester, the students of Bloomsburg partake in their largest community service project. The Big Event is a community service event that takes place in April each year. During this event, students group up to help the town’s residents with their spring cleaning, landscaping, grounds keeping and other tasks. This event is done in hope to keep a positive relationship between the University and the residents that live nearby.

The Big Event is just as the name suggests, with over one thousand people participating last year. In previous years before Covid, there have been over 2,000 students that have participated. Due to Covid the amount of students have dwindled, with the event being canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic and changed to a food drive in 2021. The event returned in 2022, but only had about eight-hundred and fifty people participating. Last year the event surpassed one thousand and helped over 170 residents. This year, CGA President Matthew Yurkunas hopes to see over 1,250 students sign up for the event on April 6th. CGA is hoping that The Big Event will soon rebuild to their previous two thousand students working the event.

The Big Event is an expensive undertaking for the University. President Yurkunas stated that through the years, the Big Event’s expenses have totaled around $15,000. The costs come from the equipment, advertising, postage and other expenses like shirts for the participants. This money comes from multiple charitable organizations, company donations, as well as other affiliated entities of Commonwealth University. Other individuals will donate non-monetary expenses that are not added to the $15,000. Yurkunas stated that one of the largest senses of pride of The Big Event is that the help comes at no cost to the residents nor the students. It exists solely as an opportunity to improve the relationship between students and the people of Bloomsburg.