Sustainability News and Events

“Would you like to buy some water?” yells out a young hippy woman with a thick southern drawl, “It’s free and I made it myself!”  She extends a small plastic cup of Louisville lake water with algae and mud floating on the surface to a woman dressed in a ball gown. The woman politely shakes her head no, only to be approached by an older man laughing hysterically with an arm outstretched towards her, “AHAHAHA HEY there!  Welcome to MIRANDA VILLAGE! Good to see you. I’m the Mayor of Miranda Village!”  The woman in the ball gown is a bit startled but she accepts his hand and greets him.  She meets Pastor Ben, a local “doctor”, and a breast-feeding woman before she finally reaches the registration table for the 2^nd Annual Edge Outreach “I-Thirst” Gala in Louisville, KY.

The gala was an opportunity for all of the supporters (both financial and otherwise) to enjoy a fun evening that incorporated entertainment, education, and fund raising all pertaining to Edge’s growing development work in water.  Between fine dining and interactive presentations, guests could learn all about water contamination and purification, hand pump repair, and well-drilling as it pertains in both “developed” and “undeveloped” nations around the globe, including the U.S.  They got to meet the crew of DePauw students, (Carter Johnson ’09, Jarrod Johnson ’09, Amanda Meyer ’10, Michelle Whitehead ’11, Mike Beeman ’09) who were on scene this past January when a massive earthquake struck Costa Rica, creating chaos comparable to hurricane Katrina in the U.S.  Along with other Edge Outreach workers and volunteers, the DePauw students were there to install water purifiers and aid in relief efforts of such international organizations as the Salvation Army as they worked with locals in Costa Rica in the midst of the disaster.

Attendees also had the opportunity to participate in an auction through which all funds would be donated to water projects.  Bidders had the opportunity to win everything from one of 50 rain barrels painted by local elementary school artists (we had the pleasure of meeting several of the artists), gift bags packed with Edge Outreach t-shirts and glass eggs from Romania, or yacht rides on Louisville’s beautiful waters! Participants were so excited and passionate about the aspect of the world’s water crisis that more than $26,000 was raised!

Though the event was supposed to end at 10:00 pm, the majority of the guests didn’t leave until after midnight when Edge Outreach volunteers finally had to start breaking down all of the decorations and materials.

The evening was truly an experience that reminded us the importance of kicking back and having fun, practicing humility, and building a stronger sense of community.  It truly quenched our thirst to be a part of powerful, sustainable, and positive change.

-The Water Movement

As part of the President’s Climate Commitment, DePauw will be raising the bar concerning recycling projects on campus by participating in a national college campus recycling competition called “Recyclemania”. Facilities director Ted Fares invited Ed Newman to DPU during Focus the Nation to share his experiences with recycling at Ohio University and how the competition first came about. Some ideas that came out of Mr. Newman’s visit include conducting a campus wide “Move-out” event where everyone pools the items left behind from move-out day and then sells the items in a massive “garage sale”. This has been a big success at Ohio state and we’re looking forward to eventually bringing this to DePauw.  Recyclemania has grown to include over 200 universities nation-wide and DPU will join the friendly competition in Fall 2009!

Chad Pregracke visited DePauw as part of the FTN event week on Wed, February 4th. Chad’s charismatic personality made his presentation stand out in the week as an event full of humor and fun. He proved that just because you do work that matters doesn’t mean you have to take yourself too seriously. Chad doesn’t necessarily view himself as an “environmentalist”, his project to clean up America’s rivers came out of his experience on the river and seeing first hand the kind of trash that has accumulated there over the years. As he said in his presentation, he was simply “sick of seeing it”. At a very young age, Chad set out to do something about it. He improved his way through the logistics of funding his project and starting a non-profit. Now, his organization “Living Lands and Waters” has grown into a large non=profit that incorporated thousands of volunteers from surrounding communities to pull millions of tons of trash out of US rivers. Chad’s uplifting story proves that one person, with a little perseverance and a good attitude, can really make a difference.

The “Students of a Warming World” (WT 2009) helped organize the 2nd annual Focus the Nation event week at DePauw. The week kicked off with a national webcast called “The first 100 days” which discussed climate change solutions for the first 100 days of the new administration. Highlights of the video included a personal interview with Billy Parish and Wahleah Johns on their journey to battle against coal fired power plants that dominate the water resources of their community.

Eban Goodstein again charges our generation to be the generation that rewires, repowers, and rethinks our world. We will be the generation that transitions from the fossil fuel age into a sustainable future. Watch the full webcast here: http://www.nationalteachin.org/videos.php#

Last wednesday, eight students representing Greek chapters came together at the first Greek sustainability roundtable to discuss the role of the greek chapters in moving our campus towards sustainability. The roundtable will be a hub for incubating new projects, sharing best practices, and connecting interested students from different houses.

At the next roundtable, Tony Robertson, the Assistant Director of Facilities Management, will be answering questions about starting or improving house recycling programs, getting professional energy audits, and purchasing green supplies through the university.

The next meeting will be Wednesday, March 4th over lunch. Contact  taylorcantril_2011 at depauw.edu for more information.