Dear USAC Members and Friends:

We've been trying something new this winter. concentrating on the "Coalition" part of our name and bringing together groups that are working on sustainability at SU and ESF. There's great potential for working together on lots of projects. Now we want to reach out to everyone and encourage you to get involved. Please consider giving an hour or two to one of the events that will be happening during Earth Week, April 19-25 and /or to Ten Tons of Love (4/27-5/15)

For USAC, one of our big events is the Focus the Nation Teach-In on Climate Change Solutions. It was a big success last year, and we want to follow up with another success this year. Since we're holding it on the day of SU Showcase, we've also developed some programming aimed at high school students, especially the Sustainability Showcase (short visual presentations by students about their design and research projects). The teach-in lineup is in place (focusthenation.syr.edu) but we need to get folks to attend. PLEASE help!

Volunteer opportunities:

Help with Publicity for the Sustainability events at SU Showcase:


• Rachel needs 2-3 people to put up posters for Sustainability Showcase and Focus the Nation (contact Rachel at enspire@syr.edu)
  
• Help publicize these events by sending invitations to the Facebook events at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=76561514668 (Focus the Nation) and http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=73233347108 (Sustainability Showcase)
• Reach out to faculty members, ask them to encourage their classes to attend the April 21 events. A detailed schedule is available at focusthenation.syr.edu, and there is a page for faculty to use if they want to incorporate the teach-in into their courses or assign students to do extra credit work related to the teach-in.
• Have other ideas for innovative ways to advertise these events? Let us Know!
• Want to develop a MySpace site? Write something for the D.O.? Parachute onto the Quad?

• April 19 is the NYPIRG Earth Day event in Thornden Park -- speakers, music, more!

• Monday, April 20: Several faculty members have suggested that we show the PBS Frontline documentary, "Heat" as part of ESF's Earth Week calendar. We need someone to arrange a room and host the event, probably in the evening.

• Tuesday, April 21: (This is SU Showcase (formerly MayFest) and there are no classes at SU that day.)
• Volunteer to facilitate one hour or both of the Sustainabilty Showcase. Student teams will be making short presentations in the auditorium (105 Life Sci Building). The facilitator will need to time the talks so no one goes over 10 min. These presentations should be really fun to watch -- there are lots of great, innovative ideas from these teams.
• Volunteer to attend one of the teach-in sessions and take notes. Sessions are 50 minutes long, either 11-11:50 or 12-12:50. A full schedule is at focusthenation.syr.edu -- there are five sessions in each time slot, so lots of volunteers are needed!
• Volunteer to help set up ahead of time (10-11 am) -- putting up signs on classrooms, making sure the technology is working in the classrooms, etc.

• Saturday, April 25: The Community-Wide Cleanup seeks volunteers. Meet at Erwin Church (Euclid and Westcott) at 10:30 and go out in teams to pick up trash in the neighborhood. go to earthday.syr.edu to register.

• April 27-May 15: Ten Tons of Love needs volunteers to load trucks with donated items and sort the items for distribution. Go to tentons.syr.edu to volunteer.