Students representing different colleges on campus met Thursday evening with David Dean, outreach coordinator of the Office of Sustainability, to discuss plans for the extended Earth Day events that will take place starting on March 11, 2009 and running through Earth Day on April 22, 2009.
The Office of Sustainability and Waste Reduction & Recycling are organizing the event and working to make it even bigger than last year, with several colleges and organizations within campus already committing their involvement as well as gaining sponsorship from Duke Energy and Progress Energy.
“Earth Day isn’t really just one day a year. What we want to do is create a broader culture of sustainability through education,” Dean said.
Colleges and organizations are already preparing projects and events that will each be highlighted to showcase their contributions to the Earth Day cause. Among the colleges, the College of Textiles will be displaying an Art to Wear’s showcase on April 22 in the Brickyard. Other contributors will be the Farmer’s s Market, Centennial Campus, Campus Dining and Campus Recreation.
Dean said another goal of Earth Day at N.C. State is to ‘educate the community about what our projects are’ since the events will also be linked to Raleigh Earth Day.
The NC State Earth Day event for 2009 is already ahead of schedule as far as preparations, according to Dean.
“For our 2008 Earth Day event, we didn’t start meeting until January,” Dean said.
He also said the committee members plan to make crucial decisions about specific events involved in Earth Day before Christmas. Early stage ideas being considered include junkyard olympics and also e-games, which is a competition in which NC State students can compete in selling their own entrepreneurial ideas.
The Office of Sustainability will be sending out a press release to campus and local media on Jan 7 to will announce a specified list of activities and events, Dean said.
The committee members discussed the importance of broadening the event this year to incorporate the entire campus and draw in more awareness of environmental issues.
“We would like to do a sustainability tour on campus that utilizes the entire campus, not just the Brickyard,” Dean said.
Plans are even in the works to hold a concert on Harris field in April that will showcase both local and national bands.
Megan Cain, a Waste Reduction & Recycling intern and sophomore in biological sciences, is helping to organize the concert event for Earth Day.
“I think the music will effectively help reinforce the theme of sustainability between people and the environment,” Cain said.
Joey LeCompte, a professional golf management major, brought up suggestions about projects that can make golf courses more environmentally friendly.
“It’s great to see students and faculty from all different backgrounds, departments and colleges at N.C. State come together for such an amazing cause,” LeCompte said.
