Ole Miss Big Event Seeks Lafayette County Work Sites March 28, 2026

Student organizers at the University of Mississippi are asking Lafayette County and Oxford residents to submit work-site requests for the Ole Miss Big Event scheduled for March 28, 2026, with a goal of mobilizing approximately 2,000 student volunteers to complete about 100 community projects. Community members who need help or know someone who does are asked to fill out a site form via email at bigeventprojects@go.olemiss.edu, and organizers said additional details and coverage will be available soon on OXMS.NET.

The Big Event is a one-day, student-led volunteer effort that provides free assistance to local residents and concentrates on cleanup and beautification projects. Examples from past years include yard work, painting fences, spreading pine straw, and indoor projects, reflecting a mix of outdoor neighborhood work and tasks for homeowners who need indoor help. Erin Crawford, a senior exercise science major and assistant director of projects and leadership for the Big Event, called it “the largest student organized day of service in the state of Mississippi.”

Organizers are laying out ambitious targets for 2026: gathering roughly 2,000 students to work on roughly 100 community projects across Oxford and Lafayette County. Those targets contrast with a registration snapshot from the 2025 cycle, when a Friday tally showed 864 volunteers signed up and 115 project leaders, with the 115 project leaders each leading a different service effort. The 2025 service day was recorded as the 15th annual Big Event, with participants photographed after the April 5, 2025 service day.

The Big Event has national roots and a local timeline: the initiative began at Texas A&M University in 1982, and the University of Mississippi began participating in 2011. UM did not host the Big Event in 2020, and since UM’s adoption the effort has grown into the largest community service project in the university’s history. A photo credit from the 2025 service day lists Marleny Lopez-Vasquez as the photographer for the April 5, 2025 image of volunteers after a day of service.

Eron Hendrix, executive director of the Big Event and a junior public health and public policy leadership major from Tupelo, said she looked forward to giving back to the Oxford-Lafayette community. Organizers reiterated that community members should submit site requests by emailing bigeventprojects@go.olemiss.edu and that further schedules, coverage, and site-form information will be posted on OXMS.NET as plans for the March 28, 2026 service day are finalized.