Delta State students, volunteers complete Big Green service projects

Delta State students and community volunteers spent the Big Green Event doing the kind of work that changes a block by the end of the morning: yard clean-ups, gardening, organization efforts and basic repairs at sites across Cleveland and Bolivar County. The service day put students in direct contact with local places that need extra hands, including community groups, schools, care facilities, parks, animal shelters and other organizations that benefit when routine maintenance gets done fast.

The 2026 event was scheduled for Saturday, March 28, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Delta State said each project was designed to last one to three hours, with the university supplying basic tools such as bags, gloves, rakes and shovels. Host sites were responsible for specialized supplies, and requests for projects were due by Friday, March 6.

Mikayla Kloth, director of the Big Green Event and a member of the Delta State Student Government Association Cabinet, said the program was "a meaningful way for students to give back to the Cleveland community and strengthen bonds through service." Delta State has described Big Green as a one-day, student-run service project for the university and the Cleveland area, a format that makes the work visible in real time for residents who live near the sites and use them every day.

The scale matters in a city and county this size. Delta State says it has nearly 2,800 students. Cleveland had 11,199 residents in the 2020 Census, and Bolivar County had 30,985, which means even a single morning of concentrated volunteer labor can have a noticeable effect in neighborhoods and at public-facing community spaces.

Big Green also fits into a longer institutional push. Delta State’s Center for Community and Economic Development was established in August 1994 to address major development issues facing the region, and the university has used the event to connect that mission with hands-on work. Earlier Big Green events drew more than 280 students, more than 780 service hours and 20 projects in the inaugural year, then 123 students, 14 project sites and 369 combined hours the following year. For Cleveland and the wider Mississippi Delta, the event has become a recurring sign that student service can leave a concrete mark on local upkeep, not just a symbolic one.