Earth Day’s mission is to help the world become more eco-friendly, and several clubs around campus were busy making the world a greener place this past week.
On Tuesday, April 22, the Brower Student Center was bustling with several tables full of tri-folds and posters reminding students to help the environment.
The College’s chapter of Delta Zeta hosted Pink Goes Green Week, a Delta Zeta national event meant to promote environmental conservation.
“We do activities to encourage people to go green,” sophomore early education and math, science and technology double major Erin Wolters said.
The sorority’s board composed a list of actions that students could take to help the environment, such as taking shorter showers, not littering and recycling.
“They could do really simple things,” junior history and special education double major Brittany Santos said. “It’s easy to be green.”
Throughout the week, Delta Zeta held fundraisers with food and a dunk tank, a showing of Pixar’s “Wall-E”, a campus cleanup and volunteered at the College’s campus garden.
However, Greek life was not the only organization on campus keeping the earth green this past week.
On Wednesday, April 23, freshmen students went with their First Seminar Program class to participate in a day of environmental community engagement.
Students who normally wouldn’t have been interested in volunteering found themselves having fun.
“It was good. I like gardening,” freshman political science major Billy Jones said. “I feel like it brought my floor together more, too.”
Water Watch, the College’s environmental club, held special events all week, too.
Members held a water taste test on Monday, April 21. Students were invited to try and pick between two unlabeled samples of tap and filtered water. Over the next few days, Water Watch sold potted plants in organic plant holders, fundraised with chocolate covered strawberries and hosted a water balloon fight.
Junior psychology major and Water Watch member Phil Clark went the extra step to volunteer at the campus garden.
“It’s a great cause,” Clark said.
All students on campus were invited to work on the campus garden or any other environment-related projects through the Bonner Center.
Senior psychology major and Bonner scholar Regina Zich, for example, worked in the garden by herself on Friday afternoon. She was busy planting unsold plants from Water Watch’s fundraiser, which were being potted in recycled copies of The Signal.
Zich strongly encouraged people to help with the cause.
“(At) first you’re not interested, and you don’t want to pick up a shovel,” she said. “But in the end, all like it.”
Zich explained how all vegetables grown in the campus garden begin in the Biology Building’s greenhouse. Once they’re ready to harvest, they’re donated to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK).
The garden’s produce ranged from leeks, peppers, eggplants, potatoes, garlic, sweet peas, sunflowers and much more.
Throughout the week, students learned that there is a lot more that can be done to help the planet, and efforts don’t have to be reserved for just one day.
“Go green!” junior health and exercise science major Kristen Kuhlthau said as she raised her fist in the air enthusiastically.
