"Going Green" may be the popular catch phrase of '08, but environmentalism is nothing new. People have been fighting to save our planet in peril for decades. In '88, TIME magazine dubbed "The Endangered Earth" the Person, or Planet rather, of the Year. While these five Boston College seniors were mere toddlers when this issue landed in newsstands across the globe, it would eventually evolve into the defining issue of their generation.
Twenty years later, Katherine Walsh, Peggy Fox, Jessica Young, Katie Cava, and Merril Putnam, all A&S '08, have already done more than most care to do in a lifetime to stop the looming threat of global warming and to protect the environment. Here at BC, their efforts have been seen and felt by everyone from the students living in the residence halls to the upper administrators perched in their offices at the top of campus.
Their dedication, enthusiasm, and enduring spirit have set the bar high, as BC and the world continue to battle the environmental sustainability crisis, and because of this, The Heights is honored to recognize the Senior Board of Ecopledge as the 2008 "Person of the Year."
These five young women remember those first few (or dozen) awkward moments of freshman year well, as do most; but from the first open meeting of Ecopledge, the tentative newcomers had found a place to call home. The group was small then; no more than nine or so students were actively engaged in the club's efforts which, Walsh said, were more based on national campaigns than the specific needs of the BC community.
Nevertheless, they made themselves heard on campus. Yelling at people to recycle in McElroy freshman year and getting the varying confused, thankful, and occasionally hostile reactions was a favorite pastime of the group. Now a senior, Young admits to yelling at her neighbors in the Mods on a consistent, and likely annoying, basis.
Though they may have felt slightly out of place in these situations, playing the part of the "crazies" on campus, their willingness to take a stance when others typically stepped aside showed their devotion to this cause right from the start.
A lot has changed for these five seniors since those first couple of Ecopledge meetings. After the senior class of '05 graduated, the club numbers dropped significantly, so these then-freshmen decided to take up the challenge and rebuild the club from the ground up.
Kevin McLaughlin
posted 5/01/08 @ 2:53 PM EST
The selection of these 5 seniors as "person of the year" is an example of BC's continued movement to the left in the support of liberal issues, such as "saving the planet" and "sustainability. (Continued…)