Written by Emily Chaffin
Imagine an almost entirely environmentally friendly football game.With this goal in mind, Harding University will compete Oct. 30 against 86 colleges in its first Game Day Challenge.Game Day Challenge is a national college competition sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency. It encourages schools to participate in waste reduction plans at one home football game during October. The project focuses on increasing student involvement in reducing waste and recycling.According to the EPA website, the mission of Game Day Challenge is to lower generated wastes, encourage participation in waste generation programs and recycling and increase awareness of different waste reduction practices. Schools are judged and scored in five categories: waste generation, diversion rate, greenhouse gas reduction, recycling and organics reduction. Winners are determined by weighing and comparing the amount of waste produced by a school versus the amount of recycling.Event representatives said they hope to inform the Harding and Searcy community of its green efforts and encourage participation and awareness of waste reduction programs. To encourage participation, a group of about 30 students, referred to as the Green Team, will be at the football game to encourage and inform the Harding community of this effort.”The Green Team is basically student involvement in the project,” said Amy Littleton, a student member of the Environmental Stewardship Committee. “In order to beef up student involvement in recycling, we thought getting friends involved would be more effective than strangers or adults.”Game Day Challenge activities begin with 10 and 26-mile bike rides at 9 a.m. at First Security Stadium. This event is open to anyone with a bike and helmet. Littleton said she hopes the rides will encourage students to use biking as an alternative form of transportation. At 11 a.m. there will be eco-friendly tailgating on the GAC front lawn followed by the football game at 2 p.m. against University of Arkansas-Monticello.Harding was one of the last schools in Arkansas to install a recycling program. Littleton said she hopes Game Day Challenge will give Harding the opportunity to connect its name with recycling programs. She added that this opportunity gives Harding the chance to further the Christian mission, purpose and focus of the institution.”I think it is important for Harding to participate because taking care of our earth is obviously a Christian principle, as well as taking care of what God has given us,” Littleton said.According to the EPA website, Harding faces competitors like Auburn University, Harvard University and the University of Tennessee. Winners of the Game Day Challenge receive an award, are listed on the EPA website and receive recognition in EPA press releases. Results will be announced in November.
