Smithies Turn Out for Earth Hour

Anyone passing by Smith College on Saturday night might have been surprised to find a completely dark campus. The lack of lights was part of a global movement called Earth Hour going on across the country from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on March 29. Millions of people across the world turned out their lights to call for action on climate change.

Earth Hour is a World Wildlife Fund project that originated in Sydney, Australia. About 2.2 million people and 2,100 Sydney businesses turned out their lights for an hour on March 31, 2007.

The movement came to Smith with the efforts of Alana Miller '10, the vice president of MASSPIRG, as well as Meredith Badler '08, Lauren Kaelin '10 and Margaret Hagan '10, three residents of Morrow House. Badler, the house president of Morrow, said that the idea had not even crossed her mind until about three weeks ago. "I was talking to Lauren Kaelin and Margaret Hagan, two sophomores in Morrow, and we were trying to figure out what we could do," she said. "We figured we could get houses to turn off their lights, but we weren't sure how we could get lights in the other buildings on campus turned off."

To make things more interesting, they came up with the idea of a Switch Hunt. Each team participating in the Switch Hunt was given 40 tags and a roll of tape. The goal was to turn off as many light switches as possible and to place a tag on each switch turned off. Each participant was required to make it to the gym to check in with Earth representatives waiting there and back to the Wilson House steps.

"We had teams from Albright, Cushing, Jordan, King, Lawrence, Morrow, Scales and Wilson," said Badler. "Albright and Scales tied for first place, Wilson won second place and King came in third."

Badler said that there was also music by WOZQ powered by pedal generators donated by the Physics department, chips donated by Stop & Shop and Whole Foods, reusable shopping bags from Whole Foods and pizza from Pizza Amore, Mimo's and Domino's. Cushing House also hosted a "Do it in the Dark" party later that night.

Sustainable prizes such as reusable green travel mugs, water bottles, draft-blockers and Earth Hour T-shirts were awarded to the first, second and third place teams, as well as the three most spirited teams. The first place teams will also get CFL light bulbs and energy-saving showerheads for their house from Physical Plant. "We also had the Bicycle Kitchen riding around with megaphones and telling people to turn their lights off," said Badler.

"Whether or not people chose to come to the Switch Hunt, we were really hoping students would take this opportunity to do something with their houses," said Badler.

Badler said that the tags placed on the light switches across campus by the students participating in the Switch Hunt will be left up for as long as possible. "The point is really to motivate students to turn off lights that aren't being used on a daily basis," she said.

Tiffany Tseng '11, a member of the King House Switch Hunt team, agreed: "I think Earth Hour was organized in such a phenomenal way, in that it really pumped up people to become more globally aware of how to conserve energy together."

"I think the fact that we can even hold a Switch Hunt to turn off all the lights that aren't being used says something about the overall energy waste," Badler said.

Badler said that Earth Hour is something that has been gaining momentum around the world, and that she is hoping to see it continue next year.

Interested parties can find out more about Earth Hour at www.earthhour.org.