Big Event is over, but Mays students are still serving the Bryan/College Station community. On May 5th, the Business Student Council (BSC) is teaming up with local sponsors, students, faculty and staff, and members of the community to host the business school’s biggest annual service event: Project Mays.

This year the BSC will again focus on serving local schools by providing one school with new playground equipment. Milam Elementary in Bryan has equipment in its playground that hasn’t been repainted in several years. The school is located in a low-income area where the free-or-reduced lunch statistic for 2010 hovers around 93 percent.

Milam has turned into an opportunity for Mays students. The BSC through several sponsors has raised $25,000 for the rejuvenation of Milam’s playground. Appropriately, the BSC is calling their project “Extreme Makeover: Playground Edition.”

The idea for this year’s Project Mays came in response to student feedback. “Students have said “We don’t really see the BSC much, and we’d like to see them out more.’ This year’s Project Mays is allowing us to do that, and it’s been awesome,” says Kelli Downing ’11, BSC vice president of events. Not only has the BSC chosen a project that will bring the students and community together, but they’ve also made an effort to include all Mays students during the fundraising process. “Domino’s sold us large pizzas for $5 each, and when we sold $1 a piece at Mays, the yield was $3 a pizza,” Downing says, emphasizing the importance of student body support throughout the fundraising process. In fact, when the BSC sold pizza, the halls and lobby of Wehner were packed with happily munching students. When Spoons Frozen Yogurt came on behalf of Project Mays, the response was equally enthusiastic.

With all this generosity, the BSC purchased $20,000 of new equipment for Milam’s playground, chosen specifically with energetic elementary students in mind. “It’s all really interactive; we didn’t want to pick something they’d just sit on, but chose the equipment knowing that we wanted the kids to be active and moving while using it,” says Downing. With these in mind, a brightly colored set with plenty of places to crawl and climb was chosen.

The BSC’s remaining funds will be used to serve ice cream to the Milam students (approximately 705 children) during the playground’s dedication ceremony later that afternoon.

Downing mentioned that this playground has a special significance, as it not only serves the school but also the community around it. “Since Milam is located across the street from a local park, this equipment gets used quite a bit by the community,” says Downing.

The BSC will also sand and paint the older playground equipment. The BSC will pre-treat the old equipment a week before they paint it, and they are asking for volunteers. Those interested in helping out with Project Mays 2010 can sign up by sending an email to projectmays2010@gmail.com with “Project Mays” in the subject line. Volunteers will be required to fill out a background check a week prior to the event.