McKendree University Earth Week Celebration
EcoTopic / Project Category
Campus and Community Policy, Community & Environmental Education, Consumption & Waste, Education & Awareness, Food, Habitat & Wildlife, Outdoor Education & Leadership
Project Goal Summary
The McKendree University Green Team is collaborating with several other student organizations on campus to put together a successful Earth Week celebration. There are a number of major goals for the week:
- Raise awareness of the importance of community service.
- Our first event, on Monday, April 17, takes place on a local heritage farm and conservation reserve where we will be helping out with their routine work.
- Generate interest of the environment through the exploration of local wonders.
- After the community service, we will explore the location by hiking around the area and enjoying nature.
- Increase environmental awareness through the promotion of recycling efforts.
- Our second event, on Tuesday, April 18, is the dedication of a bench made from recyclable materials in which our campus has been collecting all school year.
- Increased recycling efforts in daily activites.
- Students, faculty, and staff need to let off steam once in awhile. After our bench dedication, we have put together a dodgeball tournament for our third event as a fun activity; however, learning can still take place because we will be promoting recycling efforts by providing recycling bins for plastic drinks that are typically consumed during sporting events (in our case, dodgeball tournaments).
- Enhance the sustainability of our campus by planting new life.
- Our fourth event, on Wednesday, April 19, focuses on new life for our campus by planting a tree. We will have a small ceremony for the new tree on our campus.
- Increase awareness of the benefits and sustainability of pollinators
- Our fifth event takes place after our tree ceremony where several professional presenters will speak about how our future will be impacted if pollinators such as bees become extinct.
- We generally call these weekly presentations, "Brown Bags" and we will be selling sustainable lunches to educate the campus on environmentally-friendly and sustainable food choices.
- Our fifth event takes place after our tree ceremony where several professional presenters will speak about how our future will be impacted if pollinators such as bees become extinct.
- Reach out to the local community to help electronic recycling efforts.
- Our sixth event takes place on Thursday, April 20, where we have set up an electronic recycling effort to reach out to our local community, Lebanon, Illinois, to come to our campus and recycle electronics.
- Increased environmental awareness and sustainability through viewing a film.
- Not all learning as to come from work, we created our seventh event of the week to commense after our e-recycling event in which our student body, faculty, and staff members will be able to sit and enjoy the film, 'Wall-E'. The film is aimed to stimulate a positive response in the viewers to become more sustainable and environmentally aware in their everyday lives.
- Educate our students, faculty, staff, and community of environmentally-friendly and sustainable products in the surrounding communities.
- Our eighth event, on Friday, April 21, focuses on community collaboration and outreach as we hold an early Earth Day celebration.
- We able selected local vendors who are green-orienated individuals with sustainable products including food, bakery items, plants, soaps, and drinks.
- These individuals will sell their products and help educate our campus that environmentally-friendly and sustainable products exist around McKendree University.
- Our eighth event, on Friday, April 21, focuses on community collaboration and outreach as we hold an early Earth Day celebration.
- Increase political awarness by leading our own March for Science.
- Our ninth event that is on Earth Day, April 22, involves campus and community outreach to participant in McKendree Univeristy's March for Science along with the March for Science taking place in St. Louis.
- Our March will be held prior to St. Louis's march.
- Many students and faculty members will speak about the importance of science and the dangers of what can happen if the GOP continues their actions in Washington D.C.
- Our ninth event that is on Earth Day, April 22, involves campus and community outreach to participant in McKendree Univeristy's March for Science along with the March for Science taking place in St. Louis.
- Celebrate Earth Day by enjoying nature after a long week of activities
- Our tenth and final event takes places after our March for Science where we will travel to a local campground to camp and hike.
- We will continue to promote sustainable food options, products, and educate campers on sustainability and environmental awareness.
- Our tenth and final event takes places after our March for Science where we will travel to a local campground to camp and hike.
- Increase McKendree's Green Team Membership to strengthen efforts for the future and to promote leadership on campus
- Throughout each of the week's events, we will have membership signup forms to promote our efforts at McKendree in order to strengthen our Green Team because the power lays within the people.
- Gather data for interest in a green fee to promote the establishment of an Office of Sustainability at McKendree
- We will also have 'Green Fee Surveys' at each of our events to prove to our university's president that students, faculty, and staff are engaged in becoming environmentally sound and are willing to pay a fee to become a more environmentally-friendly and sustainable campus.
Project Location
701 College Road
Lebanon, IL 62254
United States
Lebanon, IL 62254
United States
Project Goals and News
- What is the challenge your project is designed to address?
- We are trying to tackle many issues that many campuses across the nation are facing. Our major challenges we aere addressing are environmental awareness and sustainabiliy education, ego-friendly food choices in the surrounding communities, recycling/e-recycling efforts, green fee initiative, pollinator education, and science importance.
- How do you propose to impact the challenges?
- Please refer to the goals section.
- Which groups are involved in your project - students, faculty, staff, community groups?
- Our project is predominantly setup and ran by the student organization that I am the president for, The McKendree University Green Team. Some of the other student groups that are collaborating with us are Wonders of Wellness, Student Government Association, and Center for Community Service. In addition, a faculty-student group called the Environmental Awareness and Sustainability Committee is collaborating with us as I am also a member of that, and finally a environmental studies honor society called Sigma Zeta.
- How is it being funded?
- As the Vice President of the Student Government Association, I was able to reach out to the senate to request funds for our events along with obtaining donations from various vendors.
- How are you communicating about this project and educating the broader community?
- Social media, weekly meetings, and flyers are the basis of communications for this project.
Tag Your Project
Environmental Awareness, Sustainability, Education, Green Fee, Pollinators, Recycling, March for Science, Nature, Earth Day, Volunteer
File #1
Unofficial Earth Week Activities LayoutWe had some last minute changes to our Earth Week events that are addressed correctly on the previous sections, but not on this particular form. I will update when given the correct form.16 KB
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Date Added: Mar 29, 2017
Date Last Modified: Mar 29, 2017
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