Examples of Sustainability

The class of 2009 isn't quite the centennial class, but it saw some important events in the life of Messiah College. It was the first whole class to take Created and Called for Community (some, but not all, of the class of '08 piloted the course). It also saw the inauguration of Kim Phipps, Messiah College's first female president.The college will also remember the class of 2009 by the projects they will leave behind. Among these are two examples of sustainable living right on campus: the Grantham Community Garden and the Solar Panel Pavilion.

The Grantham Community Garden can be found in the quarter-acre triangle next to the South Complex dorms. Seniors Francis Eanes and Daniel Webster, two of the garden's founders, can often be found in the gardens, digging, weeding, or harvesting, at least during the warmer months.

The Grantham Community Garden was started three years ago by seniors Eanes, Webster, Ryan Witmer, and Jennifer Asper. Adrian Wilson, who passed away last year, and many other volunteers also helped with the garden's founding.

The Grantham Community Garden began in the spring of 2006, when students began to plant on an unused quarter-acre of land next to the Mountain View residence.

Since that time, what used to be "a plot of ground that couldn't produce grass with fertilizer," has yielded thousands of pounds of produce, according to Eanes.

The garden is a community-supported agriculture (CSA) garden, Webster and Eanes say. This means it is financially supported by community members who in turn receive the food the garden produces.

Each year, professors, staff, and community members purchase shares in the garden for a one-time fee, Eanes explains. Every week throughout the summer, the shareholders receive a portion of whatever produce was harvested that week.

This year, things will be a little different, according to Eanes. Some of the garden's produce will go to a food bank each week.

The way produce gets to students will also change this year. Eanes says that in the past, Lottie Nelson Dining Hall has purchased shares in the garden, but that this was unsatisfying because students often didn't know whether or not they were eating food from the Grantham Community Garden.

Beginning this summer, produce will be distributed to shareholders only until the end of August, Eanes says. After students return to school, the garden's produce will be sold at a weekly farmer's market on campus.

"We really want students to feel included," Eanes explained. He says that it is important that students know that they can participate both in growing the food and in eating it.

The main purpose of the garden, Webster says, is to provide a very visible example of environmental sustainability on campus; a "tangible vision of what environmental stewardship is all about."

"The intent, then, as it is now," Eanes said, "is to get people to ask the question, 'where does my food come from?'"

One goal of the garden is to create an opportunity for education about sustainable agriculture, according to Webster.

For Eanes, one of the most satisfying parts of working on the garden has been seeing students from a variety of backgrounds and academic disciplines come together to work on the project. While there are science majors working on it, he says, there are also students from fields that seem totally unrelated. Eanes and Webster, for example, are English majors.

"Sustainability isn't just about putting up wind turbines and solar panels," Eanes explained; sustainability is something that everyone can take part in, even if they aren't scientists.

The garden's founders also say that it is good, to get out of the classroom and work with their hands. In an academic setting like Messiah College, Eanes says, "we often get bogged down in theoretical concepts" and forget to apply them.

"Taking a theory and putting it into practice is very rewarding," he said.

This is what sustainability is all about, says Webster. "It's not just a theory that you read about in a course packet;" it's something you live out.

The solar panel pavilion, located next to Frey, was built through Solar Scholars and the Collaboratory, reports senior Dean Eastlake.

The Sustainable Energy Fund, a private non-profit organization, provided a $15,000 matching grant through its Solar Scholars program for students studying sustainable energy. This grant was matched by Gannett Flemming, Inc., an engineering firm based in Harrisburg, Eastlake explains. After gaining the necessary funding, the Collaboratory's Energy Group formed a team to research and build the energy system.

The project began in Spring 2006 and was finished - except for one custom part that the team is still waiting on - last year. Many people have worked on the project over the years, including Eastlake, Kawila Miller, and Leon Leid, all of the class of '09.

According to Eastlake, the solar panels can produce 3.2 kilowatts of electricity at full sun. He says that this is enough to power an apartment, or possibly a small house in the United States, where people are fairly wasteful with energy. "In developing countries, something like this could power four or five houses," Eastlake explained.

Most of the power that the panels produce goes into Frey, says Eastlake. The rest is used to power the lights in the pavilion and the occasional electronic device plugged into the pavilion's outlets.

The main purpose of the project, according to Eastlake, was education - "for the Collaboratory, for the Oakes Museum, for the community as a whole."

Designing and building the solar panel system was great practice for members of the Collaboratory who plan on taking similar systems overseas, Eastlake says. The system will remain as an example for other Collaboratory energy groups to study. Eastlake says that it is currently being used by a group that plans to build solar energy systems in Haiti next year.

The Oakes Museum also uses the solar panel pavilion on its educational tours, which serve thousands of elementary school children each year, Eastlake says.

Through these and other projects, the class of 2009 will continue to touch Messiah College long after graduation day.