West Liberty University is celebrating its third Annual WLU Environmental Education Day on Wednesday, April 22 with a special demonstration at 1 p.m. on the Hoge Quadrangle (the quad). Also planned is a 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. display of helpful information and experts explaining the green opportunities that abound in the Ohio Valley.
Sponsored by Riesbeck Food Markets and the WLU Green Initiative Committee, the event will encourage students, staff and the public to live sustainably and environmentally conscious, according to Dr. Dave Thomas, chairman of the green committee and the WLU Council of Sustainability.
Participants include Scrappy Pappy’s Recycling (Scott Ludolph), Children’s Museum of the Ohio Valley (Patricia Croft), Nike—Reuse-a-shoe (Aron Massey), WLU Biology Club (Alex Florjanczyk), Ohio County Master Gardeners (Jackie Bartley), Ohio County WVU Extension Office (Karen Cox), Ohio Valley Peace (Wanda Rockwell), Schrader Environmental Education Center (Greg Moore), WGLZ Radio (Kali Davis), West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (Bradley Blaine), West Virginia Master Naturalists (Vickie Markey-Tekely), Wheeling Green Table (Hope Coffield), Wheeling Water Warriors (Erin Bowers) and Woodsdale United (Wendy Scatterday). These organizations will have representatives on hand in the College Union ballroom from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
At 1 p.m., students from Dr. Thomas’ English 102 class will be holding a mock protest on the quad. They will be dressed in classical 60s and 70s “hippie” clothing and will be protesting modern day environmental concerns such as fracking, pollution, resource depletion and other concerns.
“We hope that by juxtaposing the 60s look we can make people realize that no matter the era, these are still real concerns we have to worry about,” said Thomas. “If we don’t learn what the problem is or how we can fix it, then the world can only get worse.”
Environmental Education Day’s goal is to bring together sustainability initiatives from different perspective, and the committee planning the activity hopes to educate students and employees on ways that they can make their lives more environmentally friendly, said Thomas.
Other members of the WLU Green Initiative Committee include Marie DuToit, Melissa Hudson, Heather Kalb, Aaron Massey, Travis Miller, Cathy Monteroso, Jill Nixon, Jeff Pfister, Anna Stephan-Robinson, Theunis van Aardt and Tracy Zang. For more information, please contact Dr. Thomas at 304-336-8199.
