Natalie Tendall and Stephanie Harbaugh accept the grand prize of $1,000 from emcee Matt Langston on behalf of their group, which made a video entitled "Don't Recycle" for the "Tell Me" student video competition. Photo by Amanda Gahler
SARAH MAXWELL STAFF WRITER
The month of February is committed to the challenge of sustainability and students from all Iowa private colleges were invited to make films addressing one of three issues: energy conservation, alternative energy sources, or carbon footprinting. Wartburg swept the awards.
Natalie Tendall and Stephanie Harbaugh won first place for their video called “Don’t Recycle.”
“We got the idea from the video ‘Don’t Vote,’” Tendall said. “Don’t Vote” featured many celebrities trying to persuade the American public to vote and that it is their right and responsibility to vote.
The video featured many Wartburg students telling the audience not to recycle and then began explaining why it is important to recycle and take care of Earth.
“We wanted people to know how ridiculous it sounds when someone says don’t recycle,” Harbaugh said.
If one wants to see change happen then one must make the change themselves, a major point in Tendall and Harbaugh’s video.
“To go green, people need to do something,” Tendall said.
In second place were James Juett, Travis Kruger, Eric Johnson and Daniel Henrich with their film called “Two Laptops: A Conversation.”
“This was for our Lohe project. We make videos to show that you can spread a message through educational media. We probably would have made this video even without the competition,” Kruger said.
Their video featured two laptops that were left on all day using energy that was not needed and could have been saved.
The foursome looked for something that everyone can do to save energy. They used the laptops because it was different from the normal way of preaching about conserving energy.
In third place were Jason Lansing, Justin Novinger, Craig Kreman, Adam Weber and Seth Drury with their film “Household Conservation.”
Their film was a documentary about what they do to conserve energy.
“Our parents raised us to recycle, so when this competition was announced, we decided to show others what we are already doing,” Lansing said.
“It’s really a no-brainer to recycle and conserve energy,” Novinger said.
Lansing and Novinger said it is simple and easy to find ways to conserve energy. It doesn’t take a lot of time or cost a lot.
“We would like to see more areas to recycle on campus,” Novinger said.
The videos were judged by experts from University of Northern Iowa, University of Iowa, the Cedar Rapids Gazette and from World Food Prize which is a consultant for the BBC.
“Sustainability begins with one person, but only works when everyone becomes involved. Everyone can and should help,” the master of ceremonies for the award ceremony Matt Langston said.