Current Release: April 28th, 2009 | Vol. XXX Iss. 10

Photo By Evan ashby

VWC celebrates Earth Day all week

By Allyson Eates

aleates@vwc.edu

Earth Day is a celebration that has been occurring since 1970, throughout America and here at Virginia Wesleyan. During the week of April 20th there were different activities going on throughout the college campus to help raise awareness for our environment.

Kerry Brackett, the director of sustainability and energy, said,  My goal is to raise awareness on campus.

Earth Day was made an international holiday in 1990 when 141 countries joined in. Brackett said the reason that we have an earth week is because Earth Day is on April 22nd and Arbor Day is April 24, so the celebrations are spread out through the week.

This year Chegg.com, a textbook company that deals with only the customers who rent, buy, sell or donate used books, and American Forests are supporting Earth Day and Arbor Day. They are planting ten acres of trees each for those who go online and sign the Greener Earth Pact, a personal commitment to refrain from unfriendly environmental practices. Chegg.com already plants a tree for every book that is given in or taken out; they have planted 750 acres by doing so.

Here on campus we celebrate things a little differently. There were events every day in order to celebrate our earth. On Monday there was a movie at 8p.m. on waste management, on Tuesday at 11a.m. a game of double jeopardy was played having to do with recycling, on Wednesday was the actual Earth day celebration with the paper ball toss, bottle pin bowling and a newspaper toss. Also on Wednesday there was a blood drive, and anyone who gave blood was given a reusable shopping bag in honor of the holiday. The last two days of the week people planted trees around campus; all of the trees were donated.

 To cap off Earth Week, the last event will be the Cardboard Boat Regatta, said Brackett.

This event was hosted in the pool. The object was to make a cardboard boat and try to paddle it from one end of the pool to the other.

Wesleyan has been participating in the Earth day celebrations since it was first recognized in 1970 by watching movies, inviting councilmen to come speak and offering games pertaining to recycling.

Brackett said,  Ever since then we have been trying to raise awareness.

Brackett also said that he tries to choose different activities for each year. He s already thinking about what next year s events should be. This year his new event goes throughout the whole week; it s called  Recycling Wars Battle of the Greeks. All Greek members were to try and gather as many recyclables as they could. At the end of the week they could turn them in and see who won.

 Were trying to create a buzz about Earth Day, he said.  This year will probably be bigger.

At the event on Wednesday, Sarah Zeiler, a student who was helping out with the Earth Day event, said,  A lot of people have come out and played.  It s entertaining to watch.

Brackett said that they usually have a good crowd of people. It s most likely just a mixture of those who are interested in what is actually going on and those who have high awareness.

So the next time you are going to buy text books, think of Chegg.com and rent one. This way it will save you money and help save our ecosystem. But don t stop there. Little things can be done to protect our ecosystem as well. When you are taking out the trash, or even grabbing a new Styrofoam cup, remember the three R s. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.