Big Event Attracts Mississippi College Students on MLK Birthday Celebration

MC students volunteer to help clean the a vacant lot at the Jackson Zoo.

Nikki Rhea helped clean up an empty lot at the Jackson Zoo filled with weeds, litter and leaves.

For the Mississippi College student from La Porte, Texas, the Big Event activity opened the door to serve the metro Jackson community for a few hours amid the nation’s Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration.

“I loved being part of the Big Event because it gave an opportunity to come together as a college and be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ,” Nikki says. “Serving the Clinton-Jackson community was a blessing.”

With the volunteer activity coinciding with America’s January 19th birthday festivities honoring the late civil rights leader, the event, she said, “was dedicated to making Dr. King’s vision happen and dream come true.”

An interior design major, Rhea joined scores of Mississippi College students taking part in a string of events to benefit the Baptist Children’s Village, the YMCA of Clinton, the Ronald McDonald House, Wingard Home, and Methodist Children’s Home, among others.

Big Event is a one-day blitz of community service projects that originated at Texas A&M University and spread to colleges nationwide.

Lexi Frautschi, a 19-year-old Mississippi College student from Shreveport, Louisiana, also joined the litter cleanup at the Jackson Zoo. “I loved getting to serve with students of MC and be encouraged by their willingness to give a day for Jackson,” Lexi said. “Serving Jackson makes it feel like home.”

A psychology major on the Clinton campus, Frautschi volunteered with the Big Event with a Mustard Seed project in 2014. She plans to be part of the Big Event next year, too.

The Big Event army of volunteers from Mississippi College didn’t just include students.

Derrick Echoles, assistant director of the MC Office of Career Services, helped clean, move furniture and organize a building owned by New Horizons International Church in West Jackson. He worked with a dozen other students for about three hours Monday morning.

“I truly enjoyed volunteering for such a great cause through the Big Event by representing the Mississippi College family,” says Echoles, an Indianola native. The volunteer work, he said, exemplified “the rich legacy of service for others that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. consistently demonstrated through his platform.”

Derrick hopes to see more MC faculty, staff and students participate in the one-day volunteer drive next year. “The experience is invaluable.”