Painting Pumpkins with ECO

My pumpkin that I painted at this week's ECO meeting!

Everyone’s talking about this white Halloween—tree snapping, power zapping snow in Bethlehem.

But did you know this Halloween was green, too? And I’m not evening talking about the eco-friendly costumes I mentioned in previous posts. This Halloween, ECO (Moravian’s Environmental Coalition) members celebrated by painting locally grown pumpkins.

But before we could paint pumpkins, we had to move through the agenda! Gina addressed the following points:

1. Vegan Vegetarian Thanksgiving. ECO needs the culinary talent of Moravian students to cook up vegan and vegetarian dishes. All ingredients and cookware will be provided! Email me @ stcnc08 if you’re interested!

2. Greening Food at Moravian. Gina also announced that next semester she will be doing an independent study project with Dr. Diane Husic on Sustainable Food. She encouraged members to bring their concerns about Moravian’s food to her.

Dear reader, have you got some concerns? Tell me in the comment section, and I’ll bring them to Gina.

Shaz Gangy also asked members if they were interested in sorting the batteries from the box next to the HUB desk. If you’re interested in helping out or getting involved in recycling at Moravian, let me know!

But after we discussed those points, it was pumpkin painting time.

The pumpkins came from Elias Farmers Market in Allentown, an easy 15-minute drive from campus. The club had initially planned to get organic pumpkins from Rodale Farms <link> but the snow put the whiteout on that plan. Elias Farmers Market did inform us that the pumpkins were locally grown with practices very close to organic standards.

So what pumpkin painters showed up?

I spotted Miranda Cooper, member of the Peace and Justice Club*  We’re glad to have Miranda participate in our meetings for a few reasons: 

1.  She’s cool
2.  Peace and Justice is cool. Their Occupy Wallstreet Talk, lead by Moravian’s Dr. Gary Olsen, was a great success attracting almost 30 people. “Everyone had great ideas and great insight into what is happening and what they believe should happen next,” Miranda told me.
3. ECO and Peace and Justice Club hope to team up**. There’s just such a strong connect between the rights of people and the rights of the environment.

Participants in Peace and Justice Club's Occupy Wall Street Discussion.
From Moravian's Facebook.

*Interested?  Check out Peace and Justice Club’s Facebook. You can help plan an informational event on Occupy Wall Street or check out screenings of documentaries on non-violence.

** Interested? Stay tuned…

And that’s why something as simple as pumpkin painting can be so cool. Plus, you get to take home pumpkins this cool:


[pictures coming!]

How green was your Halloween? Heck! Did you survive the power outage all right? At least we saved all that CO2 emissions... heh heh.

PS: ECO typically meets every other Monday at 4 p.m. 

(Next meeting will be November 10.)