Hundreds turn out for RRHS Big Event

RIO RANCHO — With the help of 554 students and 120 adults, almost 100 homes were served Nov. 16 during Rio Rancho High School’s Big Event.

Activities Director Christopher Salas was grateful the tired teens gave up their Saturday morning to help out.

“Associated Students runs it. It’s all student-driven,” he said.

And after a pep talk from Salas, the AS students were ready to lead the rest. Students from both high schools, most of the middle schools and their families all showed up for the mass community event. While the attendance goal of 700 people wasn’t met, the Rio Rancho youth stepped up.

“My favorite thing about this is that we connect with the community and show them that teenagers are really doing good things,” Salas said.

The AS students were happy to be there, too, even though it was an early start for them. AS student Indego Perez has done The Big Event for three years.

“I started out as just one of the normal volunteers because I really enjoy doing community service and giving back to the community, but then I joined student council and we organize it,” she said.

Her favorite part is meeting homeowners in the community and some of her fellow students.

“You just get to make a whole bunch of new friends. I’ve met people from different clubs that I would have never met if it wasn’t for The Big Event,” she said.

She felt like the energy that Saturday morning was good.

“Everyone’s really energetic. I think this is going to be a really good Big Event. We’ve worked really hard. We have a bunch of job sites. We have a lot of volunteers this year,” Perez said.

The most important part for her is giving back to the community members who need help.

AS Vice President Santiago Gallegos was solely there to help people. “I especially care for my community,” he said.

He was working to pump up some of the students who weren’t quite awake yet.

“But energy will get a lot better for sure,” he said at the start of the day.

As people got their hot beverages and were put to work, the spirit of the day improved. Gallegos helped with that by putting on some up beat music for people to work to.

“I feel like this matters a lot to the community because we’re trying to give back to everybody, and there’s always a lot of people that are always in need of help, especially with the older citizens,” Gallegos said.

The Big Event was started 16 years ago by Bill Duncan. It brings together the youth of Rio Rancho to help locals with yard work. One local does The Big Event every year and says it is her saving grace.

“This has been so wonderful, this yearly cleanup because honestly, I’m not up to it anymore,” Molly Gabaldon, 77, said.

Her yard needed various things like leaf pickup and hedge trimming.

“I know they do other things, too, but this is my main thing because they can do in two hours what would take me all weekend,” she said.

She also says the work is bolstering for the teens.

“It’s good for them to have responsibility early on,” she said. “It’s just a godsend for me, you know. Iit’s really neat because it’s such a great favor for me. I don’t take it for granted.”

She added that she has never been disappointed with the end result when they help her.