Everyone knows about the popular trend of “going green.” For about twenty years, Earthkeepers has been trying to promote and actively participate in protecting creation.
One of the most visible actions that the Earthkeepers club has taken was to institute recycle bins all across campus, making them available to everyone, whether in dorms or in classrooms.
The club focuses on planning their events, heavy discussion and watching a number of documentaries on environmental issues.
This semester, Earthkeepers is focused on hosting events that will create more awareness of environmental issues. In April, the club is hosting a day of advocacy and a lobbying trip. In collaboration with SPEAK and SAB,
Earthkeepers will also be presenting the film “FRESH” to Eastern’s campus.
Earthkeepers is hoping to set up some outside service projects using physical activity for working on our surrounding nature as well. The lobbying trip to Washington D.C. will be from April 2 to 6. Eastern’s students will promote a bill to stop dumping waste into streams.
The club will also be offering an alternative spring break trip to an Appalachian health survey with Restoring Eden and West Virginia University.
Senior Brittany Bender, president of Earthkeepers, believes that the club’s greatest achievement, with help from SPEAK, has been Eastern’s facilitation of wind energy since the mid 1990s, which is provided by PECO and Community Energy, Inc. The solar panels on top of Eagle Learning Center were given to Eastern for free by Community Energy, Inc. with the energy cost at a fixed rate. Earthkeepers is also able to keep a constant pressure on Eastern about caring for the environment.
Bender said that she hopes “the club will stay active and that they just continue to think about how an institution can be run more sustainably.”