Green Team Does Service Work in Chicago Area

Last May, the Green Team and I (Jason Speegle) went on a service trip to Chicago and I wanted to tell you about the amazing camp where we stayed and worked. The name of the camp is Riverwoods Christian Center. During the summer, the camp works primarily with underprivileged children and teens in their area. The camp is beautiful with 80+ acres of cabins, trails and play areas set on the banks of the Fox River in St. Charles, IL.

We worked 4 ½ days at the camp. Work done while at the camp: a lot of woodworking, building bunk beds for newly constructed dorms and we worked on building a door to create a ventilation system for the workshop. We spent time pulling weeds, picking up loose tree branches and litter, weed eating, landscaping and planting bushes.

The purpose of this trip was to serve the Riverwoods Center. We were willing to do whatever they needed us to do in order to help them prepare for their upcoming camping season. We worked hard and our students not only accomplished a lot, but I think they really learned a lot as well. Working at Riverwoods definitely fit right in with our mission of "responsible citizenship in the area of sustainability." Riverwoods works with the economically stressed in their community, helping them create a sustainable future for themselves. The camp got us involved with nature and the beds that we were building were being fashioned out of the oak trees grown on Riverwoods campus.

We saw GREEN ELVIS!!

We also had some fun and did some sightseeing. We visited the Art Institute of Chicago, Buckingham Fountain, and the Shedd Aquarium. Riverwoods is located about 40 miles west of Chicago, so we had to take an hour train ride into the City each time we went. We also had an opportunity to attend the Chicago Green Festival. There were a lot of vendors, speakers and exhibitions. It was a great opportunity to see what is going on in the green industry.

I do my best to expose the students on the Green Team to different cultures and different ideas in the area of sustainability. Working at Riverwoods, visiting Chicago and attending the Green Festival definitely allowed us to experience a world very different than Winfield, KS.

Here is some information from their website (http://riverwoods.wordpress.com/our-mission/):

Riverwoods seeks to share the love of Christ with youth and families in economically-stressed areas of the Fox River Valley. In 2010, Riverwoods welcomed more than 1,000 youth to summer camp for a time of hiking, biking, canoeing, Bible lessons, nature walks, games, relationship-building, crafts, singing, swimming, dancing and much more.  We hope to build on that in 2011 by welcoming more youth than ever before.

When summer ends, the ministry of Riverwoods is just beginning.  Full-time staff members called Community Coordinators serve our communities by partnering with local churches to provide a variety of discipleship programs – from youth nights and open gyms to Bible studies and mentoring – all right in the communities.

SC Green Team Keeps Growing

The 2011-2012 school year is about a month underway and Green Team Southwestern has grown significantly this year. The Green Team added 13 new members this semester for a total of 22 students. "I am so excited by the size of our group this year." says Green Team Director, Jason Speegle. "We have accomplished great things the past few years with large contributions from a small number of students. With more dedicated students, we should be able to accomplish even greater things at SC."

The newcomers to Green Team Southwestern this year include, Christian Camacho (Puerto Rico), Shea Wilson (Arkansas City, KS), Jess Ratzlaff (Arkansas City, KS), Paul Swisher (Winfield, KS), Briana Cathcart (Fort Collins, CO), Teran Branham (Wichita, KS), David Barksdale (Chicago, IL), Cali Portenier (Grenola, KS), Hadley Barrows (Mound Valley, KS), Elle Nguyen (Wichita, KS), Ashta Jordan (Dexter, KS), Ashley Bruno (Selmer, TN), and Harrison Wynn (Mulvane, KS).

Green Team Implements Recycling During Freshmen Move-In

On August 14th, 160+ freshmen moved into their new dorm rooms at Southwestern College. As you can imagine, that many people moving in with new TVs, microwaves, lamps, refrigerators and countless boxes of clothes and other belongings generates a lot of waste.

This year, during freshmen move-in day, the Green Team decided to collect recycling and keep large amounts of the move-in waste out of the landfill. "I really didn't know what to expect," says Jason Speegle, Director of the Green Team at Southwestern, "but I thought it would be a great opportunity to introduce our new students to the campus recycling program and get recycling off on a good foot for the new year."

When the day was over, the Green Team had collected over 364 cubic feet of recycling, mostly cardboard. This equates to nearly 1,350 pounds of cardboard that was recycled on that day!

SC Wind Turbine Completed!

Well, I am pretty late in getting this final post and pictures uploaded from the SC turbine installation. The great news is is that the turbine is installed and generating electricity! We did have some delays (2 weeks) along the way, so the daily updates were halted due to lack of activity. The turbine was completed on August 1 and here are the photos of the completely installed turbine. I am so pleased! It really looks amazing and is a tremendous addition to the SC campus. Come and see it if you are in or around Winfield!

SC Wind Turbine Installation - July 13 Update

For the past several days, we have been waiting for the concrete footing to set before the tower for the turbine can be installed. In the meantime, this afternoon KWCH Channel 12 out of Wichita, KS came down to SC and interviewed me regarding the wind turbine installation. The interview will air on the 6:00 pm news broadcast tonight.


Here are some photos of the interview and the concrete footing.

SC Wind Turbine Installation Update: July 8

Today, the concrete foundation was being poured into the hole that was dug yesterday.

SC Wind Turbine Installation Update: July 7

 The installation of the wind turbine began today with the digging of the hole for the footing of the turbine tower. The photos show the hole and the reinforcing cage.

SC Wins Grant to Install Wind Turbine

In May, Southwestern College was notified that it would be the recipient of a small wind turbine via the Wind for Schools program. Southwest Windpower, of Arizona will provide the college with a Skystream 3.7 land turbine system and Cate's Supply of Winfield, KS will install the turbine along with the help of the Southwestern College plant operations staff. The Skystream 3.7, a 2.4 kW wind turbine, will produce up to 400 kilowatt hours per month and will enable Southwestern to create curriculum to educate the campus and community about wind energy.

The location for the installation of the turbine will be on the southwest corner of the former soccer field and installation is scheduled to be completed by the end of July. I will provide daily updates and photos as to the progress of the the turbine installation, so check back frequently to view real time updates of the progress being made.

Here are the first photos of the site (multiple views) where the installation will take place along with a campus map with the location of the turbine starred.

Yellow star indicates where on the SC campus the wind turbine will be installed

View looking towards stadium

View looking towards SC hill

Green Team Students Going to Chicago

Members of Green Team Southwestern will be participating in a service learning trip to Chicago May 9-17.

“The Green Team does a service learning trip every year and this year we are going to Chicago,” says Green Team director Jason Speegle.  “We are going to be working at Riverwoods Christian Camp, which is a camp for underprivileged kids in the Chicago area.”

Speegle says that the Green Team will help prepare the camp for summer usage by painting, landscaping, wood chopping, and trail paving among other things. The Green Team will also be attending the Chicago Green Festival on May 14.

“This is an opportunity for our students to experience, serve, and learn from a community and culture that is different from Winfield and the surrounding area,” Speegle says.  “We plan to do some hard work, have a lot of fun, and grow as individuals and as a team.”

Students attending the trip are Clint Dick, Spivey; Sydnee Nelson, Clay Center; Sarah Rommelfanger, Baldwin City; Daniel Van Sickle, Maize; Kelcie Parrish, Oklahoma City; Mark Strecker, Tonkawa, Okla.; and  Tendai Kwaramba, Zimbabwe.

Alex Gottlob from Gottlob Lawn and Landscape in Winfield will accompany the students along with Speegle.

SC Fares Well in Recyclemania

The results are in from the 2011 RecycleMania event and Southwestern College fared well with state wins in four categories.  RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities.

Southwestern ranks #1 in the state of Kansas in the following categories:

·         Grand Champion Division (percentage of waste being recycled)—Southwestern is at 27.03 %

·         Per Capita Classic (the amount of recycling collected per student at SC)—SC is at 8.53 lbs. per student.

·         Cumulative paper recycled per person—4.54 lbs. per person. 

·         Bottles and cans (includes steel, aluminum, plastic, and glass)—1.41 lbs. collected per person.

Southwestern finished in front of the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, and Johnson County Community College in each of the above categories.

SC finished in second place in the Waste Minimization category just behind Johnson County and in the cumulative cardboard recycled per person, just behind Kansas State.  Complete results can be found at www.recyclemaniacs.org. 

“The Green Team is trying to make it easy for students, faculty, and staff by placing recycling bins in convenient locations,” says Jason Speegle, director of Green Team Southwestern.  “We are trying to recycle a wider variety of material.  We will try to keep changing and improving the recycling program in order to make it more convenient to recycle more.  Our hope is that the SC family would make decisions that would lead to less waste, such as using reusable coffee cups and water bottles in lieu of disposable ones and not printing materials unless necessary.  Small changes go a long way.”

The law firm of Stinson, Morrison, and Hecker financially supported Southwestern in their RecycleMania participation.