Utah State participates in Earth Hour

Driving past campus on Saturday night, some may have noticed the big “A” on Old Main was turned off. This was for Earth Hour, an event first started in Sydney, Australia, in 2007.

The “A” was off from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. During that time, a party was being held in the Lundstrom Student Center.

The party lasted until after 11 p.m. After the slow start, with March Madness going on around that time, the party saw more than 50 attendees come and go as they danced and threw glow sticks at each other.

Earth Hour began as a way to help raise awareness of climate change. Last year, over 162 countries participated in the annual event of not using anything electrical for one hour.

“Earth Day goes beyond the hour,” said Frank De Leon, a sophomore in aviation and the Earth Day event organizer.

Several other countries have embraced the idea of Earth Hour and multiple governments have encouraged citizens to turn their lights off for the hour, De Leon said.

Darren Bingham, a junior in environmental studies, was the promoter of the party. Bingham represents the organization campus.myactions.org, a website that promotes sustainable actions such as Earth Hour.

Bingham said he hopes “that we can get 110 colleges around the country to participate in this event.”

According to an email from campus.myactions.org, 22 people sent texts from Utah State, which was the second-largest turnout of the 22 universities that participated across the country.

Awareness for the hour is not as high on campus as they would like. This is something De Leon and Bingham hope to work on for next year, they said, with an even bigger party.

Gary Phillips, the area coordinator of the Student Living Center, provided funds from the housing budget, and Charles Darnell, vice president of facilities allowed the “A” to be turned off during the hour.

Brendan Whitelaw from Pi Cappa Alpha was there to promote the Greeks Go Green initiative and was offering prizes for the raffle. He donated 25 gift cards for $10 to HuHot Mongolian Grill.

Whitelaw stated that he and his fraternity hope to “team up with Utah Clean Cities to promote cleaner air quality in Cache Valley.”

— mthomasmcbride@gmail.com