Organizations across campus will go green to celebrate Earth Week by hosting different events from clothing drives to paddling the Guadalupe River, next week.
Associate Director of Marketing for Recreational Sports, Melissa Fadler, said some of the big-gest events Bearkats can participate in are the clothing and technology drives occurring on campus.
“There will be a bin out in front of the Rec Center as well as some bins in front of the residence halls, so as people are winding down their semester they can start looking at what they want to donate before they have to pack it up and take it home,” Fadler said. “Same with technology. Any type of technology they want to get rid of they can bring to the Rec Center and then we’ll be able to give that back to the city of Huntsville.”
In addition to the drives, students will be able to attend a guest speaker at Old Main Market dur-ing nutrition week.
“Nutrition week is going on all week at Old Main where they’re highlighting a different nutrition or lifestyle of eating each day,” Fadler said. “We’ve got a Dan Phillips lecture on Monday and he’s been featured on TED Talks. He’s actually local. He builds sustainable housing, and he’s built several houses in the Huntsville area so he’ll be able to talk about that.”
For a more hands-on involvement in Earth Week, students will have the opportunity to volunteer at a local farm on Earth Day, April 22, or pay $60 to paddle the Guadalupe River.
“We’re doing an Earth Day service project at Far out Farms, which is a local organic farm,” Fadler said. “They use volunteers to cultivate the crops [which] they sell at local farmers mar-kets. We’ve got a ‘paddling the Guadalupe’ trip that’s coming up on that Friday as well. Students can register for that through our outdoor program.”
Throughout the week, the mall area will be busy with presentations on how to live a greener life-style.
“Pepsi [as well as] One World Conservation, a conservation group, will all be out in the mall talk-ing about recycling and sustainable practices,” Fadler said.
Organizations across campus will offer free programs throughout the week in addition to the ones mentioned. A complete schedule of Earth Week events can be found on the Rec Sports webpage.