ECO club on campus plans to fight environmental problems one volunteer outing at a time

Casey McAnarney | News Editor

With many issues connected to the environment being talked about in the media and in the government, UNC Wilmington’s Environmental Concerns Organization – a group of students concerned with the current state of the environment – went into the community this past weekend and provided energy efficient light bulbs to a low income area.

UNCW ECO is a campus group that participates in political activism, public education and community outreach.

The club partakes in community outreach and holds events to help educate others on the environmental issues facing our world today as well as discuss ways to combat these problems.

In the case of the community outreach they partook in this weekend, the group journeyed to First Fruit Ministries on Vance Street, which is a center that provides services for the homeless, in order to administer usually costly energy efficient bulbs to those in need.

More specifically, the group passed out these bulbs to widows who are no longer able to make it to the food pantry at First Fruit Ministries. This was facilitated through the ministry who already distributes fresh vegetables, baked goods and hot meals to these women each week. 

“With a community group as our liaison, we distributed energy efficient bulbs in a low income area in Wilmington,” said ECO club member and UNCW senior Caitlin Hall. “The bulbs were purchased with a grant from Greenpeace.”

Hall explained that when the ECO club first decided to distribute energy efficient lightbulbs, they decided it would be most appropriate to work through a ministry with previously established contacts in the area.

Working through First Fruit Ministries was both safer for volunteers and less frightening for the homeowners that the ECO club visited distributing light bulbs.

“A group of strangers knocking on your door and asking to change your lightbulbs might raise suspicions,” said Hall about how the community would have felt if the club had foregone the help of a community liaison.

However, though this outing helped lower income households get bulbs that in the long run are cheaper due to the fact that they last longer, the benefits for the environment were one the club’s main concerns. Using energy efficient bulbs cuts down on both the power bill and carbon footprint.

“Each bulb produces the same or more [amount of] light while using fewer watts, which is less energy,” said ECO club member and UNCW sophomore Kiley Rosier. “One woman who we delivered these light bulbs to keeps her porch light on all night because it makes her feel safer in the area she lives [in]. She had a 75 watt bulb on her front porch and we replaced it with a nine watt bulb, which is over eight times less electricity use. And these bulbs last much longer than a regular bulb.”

According to Rosier, this project has been done before by a student group in Atlanta, and some members of ECO were in contact with this group.

“When the idea was presented to ECO we all thought it was fantastic,” said Rosier. “We are trying to be more involved in environmental justice than we have been before.”

Rosier explained that environmental justice is the fair treatment of all people under environmental laws and regulations, “which is not something that happens often.” What the group hopes to do more of is bring charity and environmentalism together.

“We definitely plan on having more events like this in the future,” said Rosier. “First Fruit Ministries seems like a wonderful organization, and we’d like to continue our relationship with them. They are in need of a composting facility as some of the donated produce they receive has gone bad and they simply throw it away. We’re interested in exploring that avenue with them in the future, based on what their needs might be.”

If someone is interested in joining the group, Hall and Rosier encourage them to attend the club’s weekly meetings, Mondays at seven in the evening in Friday Hall 1014. They also encourage people to check out their Facebook group page at UNCW ECO or join the emailing list by contacting [email protected] or [email protected].

Overall, helping the environment is about helping people, according to ECO. Mainly people who have less or have been marginalized by society. It is great to see and feel this important aspect of environmentalism so clearly. ECO said that they are happy to do this kind of work and hope they can continue to expand upon this in the future.