Big Orange is the New Green

UT's event "Make Orange Green" kick-offed yesterday in Presidential Courtyard. It was a display of UT's efforts to make our campus sustainable and it was also a celebration of these efforts. Initially walking through Presidential Court I was surprised to hear a DJ and a radio station playing music. There were tables set up in the middle of the courtyard with many different green clubs and organizations. Some of them included the UT Mug Project, Campus Beautification Committee, and UT Farmer's Market. The Adopt-A-Stream organization had a really cool table set up where you could observe the effects of things such as newspapers, oil, or dirt on water systems on a plastic board with farm animals, trees, etc. My poison of choice was pesticides (aka dry lemonade mix) which I poured into a stream on the farm - it spread a little bit but when it rained (or the table worker poured more water) the pesticides spread everywhere! The Adopt-A-Stream organization's name implies what they're all about - clubs on UT campus can adopt a stream and clean it up two times a year. The Cruze Dairy Farm table had delicious locally-made ice cream that they were handing out in mini-cones for free. I asked one of the girls scooping ice cream what the ice cream consisted of exactly, and she said it was made using the milk from their cows and organic eggs. Yum. I didn't actually get to try this delicious ice cream for myself because they ran out when I got there but I heard it was amazing. They also told me that they have a corn maze going on in October (anyone who's interested..). And they're located just off of Strawberry Plains, so not too far away from UT. Parked all around the courtyard were the latest cars from Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Chevrolet which all had zero emissions. And if thats not cool enough, I have to say the cars looked pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself.
But, my personal favorite part of the whole event was when the random flash mob burst into the Cupid shuffle in the middle of the courtyard. I had been warned of the flash mob beforehand so I wasn't too surprised, but it was fun to watch all of the students who were checking out all of the green tables and other stuff to stop and watch us 'walk it by ourself'. Plus it added a spontaneous atmosphere to the event! I also really liked the UT Mug Project table - I always feel bad every time I go to Starbucks and see a person in line who has brought their own cup to fill with coffee. If alot more people did that then there would be less paper waste in the world. I overheard the girl working the table saying that they were going to be giving away alot of reusable plastic coffee cups - sounds like I'll have to be on the lookout for them! Overall it was a very cool event and it did make me aware of some of UT's efforts to be green and motivated me to look up ways to get involved in this green effort. COME ON FELLOW UT STUDENTS,  LET'S MAKE ORANGE EVEN MORE GREEN. Wooohoo.