EWC and LWMC celebrate Earth Day
The Earth Watch Club kicked off its week-long celebrations for Earth Day 2013 with a campus-wide clean-up and awareness campaign in collaboration with the Lahore Waste Management Company on 22 April 2013. The Earth Watch Club celebrated the Earth Week from 22 to 26 April 2013 as a week full of events for raising awareness about environmental issues. This week-long series started with a Tree Plantation Ceremony by Dean of Students, Ms Cheryl Burke.
The day’s activities continued with a Campus Clean-up campaign for which the LWMC arranged for its personnel and equipment, such as mechanical sweepers and washers, to be made available for cleaning up the campus. Student volunteers were provided masks, gloves and garbage bags to encourage them to participate in the clean-up. LWMC’s cleaning equipment also swept and cleaned the roads inside FCC. FCC students also signed a resolution, pushed by LWMC, for a Litter-Free Lahore.
The clean-up was followed by a seminar to raise awareness about the importance of a clean environment. FCC Rector Dr James Tebbe and LWMC Chairman, Mr Rafay Alam, spoke on the occasion and stressed on discouraging littering and keeping the FCC campus and the city clean.
The activities were a part of the LWMC Litter-Free Lahore campaign which started on Earth Day.
On the second day, the EWC screened ‘Delhi Safari’ for raising awareness about social and ecological effects of deforestation. The most highlighted event of Earth Week, Greenovation, also started on the same day and consisted of these three modules:
- Step up: Participants presented their ideas for making FCC green.
- Lets Greenovate: Participants made productive models by reusing waste materials.
- Be the change: participants delivered a public service message by making a one minute video and a poster.
The students presented their ideas for turning FCC green, on the second day of Earth Week. Among the ideas put forward was to promote a non-smoking campus, proper disposal of laboratory waste and saving energy by utilizing renewable energy resources. A healthy debate also originated among the teams for discussing the different perspectives of each idea presented. These ideas were judged by Dr Mudassar Iqbal from the Chemistry Department and Ms Umarah Mubeen from the Biological Sciences Department.
On the third day of Earth Week, the participants exhibited models made from waste materials. More than 300 students and faculty members visited the exhibition and voted for their favorite models. Dr Saba Butt, Dr Khalid Rasib and Ms Umarah Mubeen judged the competition. EWC screened ‘Rio’ on the fourth day to raise awareness about endangered species. In the evening, the third and last module of Greenovation was scheduled where participants screened their models and posters.
The closing ceremony of Earth Week and the prize distribution of Greenovation was held on 26 April. The ceremony started with a recitation from the Holy Quran by Hafiz Owais and from the Holy Bible by Mehwish Irshad. Ms Umarah Mubeen gave a brief presentation on the activities of Earth Week after which, Dr Manzur Gill, former Chief Advancement Officer, spoke to the audience. A group of students put up a musical performance. Then the prize distribution ceremony took place and the Greenies were declared the winners of the event and awarded Rs 10,000 with an assurance that their idea will be on the agenda of Earth Watch Club.
