Closing out Spring 2013 with a Bang!

Big thank you to everyone who came to the meeting tonight to vote for next year’s leadership positions! In case you didnt make it here are the results:

Co-Chairs: Austin Yantes, Andrea Perkins, Eric Katzelnick

Vice Chair: Elise Wirkus, Eva Baldinger

Treasurer: Courtney Holdt

Secretary: Kysa Stocking

Communications: Brady Loomis, Ashley Berg

Teaching Waste Management: Eva Baldinger

Farm Mobbing: Jenna Walsh

Athletics: Michael Li

Moving-Days: VACANT

Compost Carry-Out: VACANT

Bottle Free Badgers: Mariana Debernardini, Aaron Conradt

Congratulations to all those who were elected leaders and for those that are still interested, Moving-Days and Compost Carry-Out are still open.

Our end of the year party will be next week at Picnic Point from 6 until 8. See you there!

Our end of the year party will be next week at Picnic Point from 6 until 8. See you there!

Here is what we have coming up the next couple of weeks of school.

  • The Sustainability Forum is tomorrow 5/2 from 12-3 at the Engineering Centers Building. There will be a ton of great speakers and free food!
  • Our semester Bake Sale will be taking place tomorrow night 5/2, rain or shine! from 10pm until 2am. Please bake whatever you would like and bring it to the table. We will also need volunteers to work the table so please see if you are available tomorrow night.
  • Farm Mob this Sunday at FH King, the 80 bus takes you there, it is by the hospital and Picnic Point. We will be there from 2 until 5p
  • Crestwood, clearing out the mustard seed is also this Sunday from 1 until 3p. We are meeting behind Science Hall at 12:30p. We have plenty of transportation so just bring yourself, remember not to wear fleece or the mustard seed will stick to you
  • Our end of the year party is next Wednesday during regular meeting time, although people will be out at Picnic Point around 6. Bring food to grill and share!
  • Housing Move out is May 11th through the 18th from 10am until 6pm. Here are the following sign ups for each dorm, feel free to sign up for any of the dorms for as much time as you can:

Chadbourne,   Dejope,   Elizabeth Waters,  Holt Commons,  Ogg,  Sellery,  Smith, Witte

 

 

Spend April with REthink

Hey REthinkers, hope this rain isn’t washing you out because we have a ton to do this month and we’ll be looking for all your help. Here’s whats coming up, please click on the events for sign up information and more information:

April 2013
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
  1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Badger Ammunition Plant

 
14

Farm Mob

 15 16 17 18 19 20

Urban Ecology Center
21

Farm Mob

 22

-Earth Day Conference

-Earth Day Event, 8-5, Union South

 23 24

Mugs on the Mall

Wear Red Get Fed 11-4

 25

Trash Audit, 3-4 at Bradley

 26 27

Farm Mob

ASM Sustainability Fair, 12-3 at WID
28

Campus Clean Up

 29 30 1 2

Bake Sale10-12

 

    
             

Finally Looking like Spring

Thank you to everyone who came by last meeting and listened and asked Jack Kloppenburg questions. He is a great resource on campus and everyone should feel free to go talk to him about school or real world topics. Here is what we have coming up the next few weeks:

Bottle Free Badgers:

  • We have created a survey for our water bottle campaign, please take the survey and feel free to send it on to friends around campus.
  • Earth Day is April 22nd and to celebrate we will be handing out reusable water bottles at Union South to discourage people buying plastic water bottles. We need volunteers to help out all day for this event.
  • As always make sure to encourage your friends to sign the petition and support our campaign!
Remember when Library Mall used to look like this? Well at least the flowers and leaves will start to come back!

Remember when Library Mall used to look like this? Well at least the flowers and leaves will start to come back!

Farm Mob:

  • Coming up we have farms mobs on the 21st and 27th. Stay tuned for details on these events in the coming weeks. 

350.org

  • Monday the 8th at 7:00 in Room 15 Science Hall 350.0rg Madison will be hosting a teach in about the Keystone XL pipeline. 

Ecological Restoration at Badger Ammunition Plant:

  • April 13th from 9am until 12pm we will be volunteering at this historical geological site. To figure out carpooling please fill out this doodle and RSVP at,  workdays@saukprairievision.org

Earth Day Conference:

  • On April 15th the Menona Terrace is hosting many speakers including Jane Goodall. There is a charge for going but not if you volunteer! Email Nik at nsimonson@wisc.edu  for more information. 

Mugs on the Mall

  • April 24th from 8am until 11:30am we will be giving out free coffee to anyone who has a reusable mug. We will need volunteers throughout the morning so stay tuned for a sign up doodle. 

Campus Clean-Up

  • On April 28th from 11am until 1pm we will be going around the lakeshore cleaning up the lake. Hopefully we will use canoes to actually get right on the lakeshore. We will need volunteers for this event so plan ahead and make sure you’re available to help that Sunday! 

Late Night Bake Sale

  • Everyone’s favorite event is going to be on May 2nd (the Thursday before Mifflin). We will need bakers to make and package baked goods and we will need volunteers from 10pm until 2am that night. This is always a super fun event and even if you cant volunteer you should stop by for the fun! 

Welcome Back to UW and Warmth! (April Fools, it’s still cold)

Image

Dream Farm Barn and silos.

We hope that everyone had a terrific spring break where ever you were and that your Monday being back has been great. Remember that were are still working hard on our Bottle Free Badgers campaign and that this April we have many events to look forward to (including the snow melting), Mugs on the Mall, Campus Clean Up, Farm Mobs, and many more.

  • We do have a Farm Mob this weekend, 4/6 from 11AM until 4PM at Dream Farm. If you’re interested in joining us click here to sign up.
  • Our weekly meetings continue this week, Wednesday at 7:00 in Room 15 of Science Hall. Jack Kloppenburg will be speaking with us. This is very exciting because he is our staff supervisor and has lots of information about how REthink got started. See you then!

World Water Week is here!

World Water Week is March 11-15 and we have a lot of events that week and leading up to it. We have over 500 feet of strung water bottles! Way to go everyone!

  • Today (3/7): The Sustainability Forum is today at the WID. We need people to work from 8-9am, 11:30-12:30pm and 4-5pm. If you have time between your classes come stop by and look around.
  • If only it was this warm out during World Water Week, but we'll still decorate it with water bottles instead of flamingos.

    If only it was this warm out during World Water Week, but we’ll still decorate it with water bottles instead of flamingos.

    World Water Week (3/11-3/15)

-Monday: Bascom Hill Display, sign up to help setup this great display.

-Tuesday: We will be petitioning in Library Mall and at East Campus Mall, sign up here for those times. George Dreckmann will be speaking in Room 15 of Science Hall at 6:00pm to talk about the importance of reducing waste.

-Wednesday: We are showing “Flow” at 9:30 at the Marquee at Union South. Bring your friends!

-Thursday: We will continue to petition in Library Mall and at East Campus Mall. Sign up here for those times. We will also have Tap Water Taste Testing at College Library.

  • WIAA Boys Basketball: Volunteer Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, there are lots of times to volunteer. Sign up here to help eliminate the waste from this event.
  • Trash Audit: on Friday 3/15 at a local elementary school. Let Eva know if you’re interested, eabaldinger@wisc.edu.

Don’t forget to keep promoting the Bottle Free Badger’s Facebook page and petition. Have a great week!

Prepping and Partying

We have had a very productive week at REthink. Monday and Tuesday we finished collecting water bottles for our World Water Week Bascom Hill display. Wednesday we strung water bottles together, made signs and enjoyed a delicious “notluck”. Thursday night we celebrated the accomplishments of our Athletics campaign by acknowledging the 78,000 pounds of recycling that we collected and sorted from Camp Randall last fall. Coming up there is still much more excitement.

Hard at work stringing water bottles for our Bascom Hill display.

Hard at work stringing water bottles for our Bascom Hill display.

  • Bottle Free Badgers: Continuing this week we will prep for the Bascom Hill display by stringing more water bottles, making water bottle facts, printing and posting flyers near water fountains of every building, and getting ready for showing “Flow” at the Union South Marquee on March 11th. If you are interesting in helping join us at our weekly meetings or contact Aaron, aconradt@wisc.edu. Be sure to promote our petition and Facebook. 
  • Badger Ammunition Plant: We are deciding on a date to go do some ecological restoration. If you are interested in helping out, fill out this doodle to choose the date that best works for you.

This month look out for World Water Day and do your part to help out. See you at the meeting!

Events Galore, Everyone Can get Involved

We hope everyone has had a great weekend. Thank you to everyone who helped out at events last week, keep it up REthinkers! We also went bowling on Thursday (photos to come) and had a great time bowling and socializing with REthink members. Be sure to join us for our next social (tbd) for another great night out.

this-is-not-plastic-sigg-water-bottleHere is what we have coming up:

  • Teaching Waste Management: We need volunteers on Monday Feb. 25th form 1:30 to 3:30. We are going to Spring Harbor Middle School to give a presentation on water bottles and why they are bad for the environment. Email Lizzie, ebneedham@wisc.edu if you are interested in helping out. 
  • Volunteer Party by We Conserve: just reminding the people that did RSVP in time the volunteer party is this Thursday, Feb 28 at 6:30 at the Khol Center. See you there!
  • Bottle Free Badgers: We can’t say this enough times, but Aaron needs help! Email him if you are interested in helping in anyway, that is researching, tabling, making posters, here is his email: aconradt@wisc.edu. Here is the petition, feel free to send to family and friends here in Madison or anywhere! They can also follow us on Facebook or read our blog!

Our next meeting is a Notluck, please bring food or an item to share with the group, your reusable plate and silverware. This will be a more relaxed meeting where we will be stringing water bottles together for World Water Week. Remember to keep promoting this campaign in your classes!