Sigma Kappa sorority will participate in the statewide "Campout! Carolina" event being promoted by Elon's Live Oak Communications.
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If you notice a crowd gathering on Young Commons this Friday morning, it’s Elon’s Sigma Kappa sorority taking pledges from students, faculty and staff to do something positive for the environment. The pledge event is part of the sorority’s participation in Campout! Carolina, a statewide event hosted by EarthShare North Carolina, a coalition of more than 70 nonprofit environmental groups. The FOX 8 news stations in Greensboro will be on hand at 11 a.m. to film the students’ participation.
Sigma Kappa sorority is dedicated to environmental stewardship. In 1992, the sorority adopted “Inherit the Earth” as its national service project, where local chapters conduct annual environmental projects in their communities. For their local project, Elon’s Kappa Zeta chapter has adopted Kirkpatrick Road, where they conduct “highway cleanup” in partnership with alumnae and older citizens. Now, the sorority has added Campout! Carolina as a second event for local participation.
“The Inherit the Earth program is all about improving local environments,” said Julia Weiss, president of the Kappa Zeta chapter. “Campout! Carolina is a natural fit for our program because it involves environmental groups who are doing positive things across the entire state.” Weiss said.
Launched in 2007, Campout! Carolina is now in its fifth year, and encourages residents across the state to unplug, turn off lights, and camp out in their back yards to celebrate our state’s natural resources. The event takes place this weekend, Oct. 7-9. Residents are encouraged to sign up to be counted on campoutcarolina.org. Last year, more than 8,000 North Carolinians participated in the event.
Campout! Carolina too has its roots in positive involvement of Elon students. The event was conceived in the spring of 2007 in Associate Professor Lee Bush’s Strategic Campaigns class for client EarthShare North Carolina. From there, the event was handed off to Live Oak Communications, Elon’s student-run communications agency. For the past five years, Live Oak students have handled promotion of the event – developing the website, PSAs, social media, in-store promotions with REI outdoor stores, and media outreach across the state.
In addition to the pledge event on Friday, the Sigma Kappas and Live Oak students will be camping out at various locations around Elon. They encourage students, faculty and staff to stop by Young Commons on Friday at 11 a.m. to make their own pledge. To sign up as a Campout! Carolina camper, go to campoutcarolina.org to be counted.