The many student-led clubs at Viterbo University are all centered on the core values, leading each other to make our world a greater place for friends and strangers alike. The Student Sustainability Club is perhaps the quintessential example of implementing the core values into service for not just the Viterbo community, but also the entire planet.
The club prides itself on its mission to move the university in a direction that will lead to a more sustainable environment. In doing so, members also do their best to educate students about their environmental impact, as well as on ways to improve their lifestyles and make healthier choices. The club is a joint effort, as they are strongly connected to Viterbo’s Environmental Responsibility Committee, led by Karen Hurtgen. The two groups meet when planning any of the Student Sustainability Club’s events in order to effectively share their message in a timely, safe, and impactful manner.
The club is led by their president Bailey Benson, a senior biopsychology major. Benson, an advocate for all the Student Sustainability Club’s beliefs, has been a member ever since her sophomore year at Viterbo. According to Benson, resilient and sustainable living, both for the environment and for personal practices, are of the utmost importance. Benson shared, “I wanted to help myself learn about those healthy lifestyle practices… and impact the campus and community to become more sustainable as well.”
The Student Sustainability Club has hosted an array of events. One such event saw the team joining forces to create houses for Mason bees. Benson explained that Mason bees are the more populated bee in the La Crosse area. Unlike Honey bees, Mason bees do not create their own hives. For safety, Mason bees find materials such as wood that they can crawl into and inhabit. The Student Sustainability Club wanted to lend a hand to the bees and make their real estate hunt less cumbersome, so they found large pieces of wood, drilled holes in them, and planted them around the Viterbo Athletic Complex. These lucky bees then had a cozy home to live in and lifetime passes to a variety of collegiate sports right in their own backyard.
The club also held a farmers’ market earlier in the fall semester in which they invited local vendors from around the community to participate. “It’s been a bit more of a challenge because of COVID,” Benson explained, but this did not stop her group from spreading the word to vendors, dietetics students, and other willing individuals. Items ranged from homegrown produce to homemade stickers. Benson and her sister even participated in the fun, selling fresh produce that they had grown at their home.
Most recently, on Friday, November 20, 2020, the group organized an event to gather students to make a Promise to Humanity Pledge. The pledge, which was started by a small group of college students in Florida, urges other likeminded college students to vow to play their part in stopping the global spread of COVID-19. By making the pledge, students agree to follow many guidelines such as social distancing, wearing masks in public spaces, and avoiding large crowds, to name a few. Students that make the pledge are then entered into a grand database of other students who had done the same.
Personal gratification was not the only prize from signing up. Benson and her team collaborated with Larson’s General to give away bars of soap. “The soap was cut from a large bar of soap that (Larson’s General) already had,” Benson explained. The local store focuses on sustainability, encouraging the reuse of containers and safe, organic practices involved in making their products. It was these reasons that encouraged Benson and her team to collaborate with the local store in the first place.
Benson encourages all students who are interested to join the Student Sustainability Club. “You don’t have to just be a science major,” she explained, continuing, “it’s just if you have a passion for becoming more environmentally friendly, or just to learn more about it if you don’t know about those things.” Benson wants all students to be on the lookout for the Eco-Challenge they will be hosting in March and says that all students who sign up will be given a free set of bamboo utensils. For questions about involvement, please reach out to Bailey Benson at bbenso67263@viterbo.edu or Karen Hurtgen at kghurtgen@viterbo.edu.
