The Hallermann family couldn't have planned its move from a ranch in Caldwell to a home in Bryan at a better time.
"You expect Aggies to be helpful," said Mylinda Hallermann, a former student. "But this is overwhelming."
The family moved in about a month ago and admit the prior owners hadn't given much care to the home's exterior.
Around 50 Texas A&M University students who were members of the Destino club worked for around five hours on the property, assembling a trampoline and play equipment for the Hallermanns' two young children, painting, chopping bamboo, removing tree stumps and one task that required some research.
Rico Gutierrez, the community service chairman of the Christian organization, admitted he and his group consulted Wikipedia after looking at the assignment list weeks earlier and seeing "create a French drain."
Did it make Mylinda Hallermann nervous that the non-engineering majors consulted an online encyclopedia to do the job?
"Nope," she said. "Not at all. They're Aggies. Everything was so organized."
Her husband, Detlef, is a finance professor and serves as director of the Reliant Energy Trading Center at the Mays Business School.
He participated in the event as a student in 1988.
"It's grown at least tenfold since I did it. We're dumbfounded and amazed," he said, talking about the service-oriented outlook of Aggies he's encountered. "This is very much one of the reasons why I wanted to come back here and teach. It's the reason my wife and I decided to come here and raise our children. This is something you don't see anywhere else."
The Big Event is the largest student-led one-day service project in the nation. The service isn't needs-based, meaning any community member can ask for help.
The event was started in 1982 by students who wanted to thank the Bryan-College Station community for supporting the university.
Director of The Big Event, junior Mallory Myers, said 13,255 Aggies completed 1,428 jobs. Last year's Big Event drew 12,500 Aggies and knocked out 1,200 service projects.
She said when the organization received the Points of Light award at the Presidential Forum on Service in October, it went a long way in raising awareness on campus about the volunteer opportunities available.
Though some have criticized the project sign-up process in the past, Myers said she thinks it's important that socio-economic status not be considered.
"All the jobs matter because they help build those relationships with the community," the political science major said. "We just want to be a part of their lives and express our gratitude and appreciation. We believe anyone and everyone should be a part of that."
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