2 weeks Ago By gneese
Garrett Neese Lindsey Sylvania, a Waynesburg University psychology and youth ministry sophomore from Oakland, Md., receives a pin from EcoStewards vice president Garret Kunz during the university’s Earth Day celebration Tuesday. Waynesburg celebrates Earth Day By Garrett Neese newsroom@heraldstandard.
com Waynesburg University students celebrated Earth Day with a mix of information and action. Campus organizes handed out swag at tables at Jefferson Commons and the Stover Center on campus, while also highlighting projects inspired by Earth Day. The EcoStewards group showcased a herbarium of plant specimens collected locally and gave away pins, as well as flowers it had planted in the community garden last fall.
“We put dirt in the beds, we planted all the bulbs for service, and now we have flowers,” said group secretary Alison Landon, an environmental science sophomore from Alliance, Ohio. “They were going to use them for graduation, but they bloomed too early.” Members said the day was a chance to spread awareness of the need to appreciate nature and be good environmental stewards.
The group also highlights the importance of one topic with informational displays each Earth Day: root systems this year, following a display on frogs for the leap year of 2024. “Even if it just impacts one person, you can still make an impact one person at a time,” said group vice president Garret Kunz, an environmental science sophomore from Alliance, Ohio. On Wednesday, the group plans to follow up by planting 50 saplings on the Unity Trail, “We thought we’d plant some trees on the trail because it’s a little bit sparse, with a lot of rainstorms and the trees collapsing,” said club president Bryn Hannah, a forensic science senior from Royersford.
Nearby, the Commuter Club was giving out Earth cookies. The event helps get word out about the small club, and also helps draw attention to other movements aimed at reducing trash on campus, said club president Morgan Bedilion, a public relations sophomore from Waynesburg. “I think this is really helpful with that too, keeping the movement of that going,” she said.
The group behind that initiative, Chatter for Change, had a booth set up inside Stover Center Tuesday afternoon. Spawned from a public relations campaign class, the group focused on waste management and energy conservation. The campaign, spread over 22 days leading up to April 22, emailed a new challenge to students every day, said team lead Diana Hernandez, a public relations sophomore from Sayreville, N.
J. Turn off three lights in a building, for example. Or take a walk and pick up a piece of trash.
They’re talking about reprising the project in concert with the EcoStewards. “This is something that we would also like to continue on as a part of the Public Relations Student Society, more campaign work that we really like to do, because it’s definitely something that’s shown a little bit of some success,” Hernandez said. As part of a scavenger hunt, the group hid 22 Earths around campus, which could be redeemed for prizes such as cookies in the shape of a squirrel — omnipresent campus figures who serve as the group’s logo.
In all, 50 students took on the daily challenges, said Steve Trettel, a public relations and journalism sophomore from Pittsburgh who serves as the club’s campaign research and event coordinator. It also hosted two cleanup events on the campus and the Unity Trail, collecting 25 bags of trash. “We’ve had students tell us that they feel more conscious about seeing trash on campus, picking it up, about turning lights off, about conservation,” he said.
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