Conservation encouraged during Earth Week

By Matthew Rainwater

DeKALB | Earth Week is one of the busiest times of the year for one campus environmental group.

NIU’s Committee for the Preservation of Wildlife (CPW) has set up several events this week in celebration of Earth Day, on Sunday, April 22.

Over the weekend, a group of students met early last Sunday morning outside Montgomery Hall to voluntarily clean up part of campus.

CPW will host an Earth Week concert and trivia night from 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday at The House Cafe, 263 E. Lincoln Highway, where the group plans to hand out prizes. A donation of $2 or more is required for admission, and the money raised will go toward several environmental causes.

The money will go to the Conservation Fund’s Illinois program, which does restoration and conservation work in the Great Lakes, the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie and the Illinois wetlands. Money raised will also help fund the “Save Moosehead” campaign, an attempt to protect one of Maine’s largest undeveloped lakes from housing developments.

Allison Sacerdote, a fourth-year biological sciences student and president of CPW, said that several bands have been confirmed to play at the concert. The line up so far includes The Green Merries, The Giving Tree Band and Bill Leighly.

CWP will also hold a 20K on Saturday, which will begin at 10 a.m. at the King Memorial Commons.

“We have pledge sheets on our Web site so folks can raise at least $20 and get a T-shirt,” Sacerdote said.

CPW will also hold a plant sale. The plant list can be found at www.bios.niu.edu/cpw.