The Telescope

Issue Date: 11/17/08

Palomar launches green campaign

By Kelley Foyt

The 2B Clean and Green mission is a program designed to encourage Palomar students to make a positive impact on their environment.

Student and staff can form teams receive points for certain clean-up activities around the campus. Harder tasks receive more points. The points are tallied up each month and the leading team is announced. In April 2009, the final points will be tallied up and the winner will be announced in a ceremony.

"With a cleaner and greener campus, [we] will influence and affect the nature of the students and staff, as well as the morale of any representative of Palomar College," said Armando Telles, an Associated Student Government senator and one of the leaders of the campus 2B Clean and Green mission. "To not see cigarette butts, to not have trash in the bushes, to have just a cleaner campus, [we] would positively influence the perception and the consciousness of being from Palomar College.

"It would also contribute to a greener environment."

The campaign started as an idea by Sherry Titus, the Palomar Student Affairs administrator, and Nancy Morgan, from Mission Federal Credit Union. The pair brainstormed ways that they could help Palomar students, and came up with the idea for 2B Clean and Green. Mission Federal Credit Union now funds the campaign.

2B Clean and Green runs on the activities of teams. Teams can have up to five members, and can be comprised of students and/or staff. Clubs, organizations, departments and groups of friends are all encouraged to join. Telles said that a lot of clubs have broken into several groups of five and signed up. Students can also join a team as an individual.

Two Palomar students, Maria Flores and Janamae Abiaro, participate in the campaign as Team Equinox. Flores and Abiaro won the contest for the design of 2B Clean and Green's logo.

"We saw the flier, and we both like art. So we brainstormed and designed it," Flores said.

Abiaro explained that they had had "some idea of the program but [they] weren't involved in it" prior to designing the logo. Now they are both active members.

"It's a fun thing to do with a group of friends," Flores said. Abiaro added that the program is rewarding, and "the more you give, the more you get."

As of Oct. 27, teams have a schedule to complete tasks.

Due to both student and staff schedules, task assignments are currently only assigned on Fridays and Saturdays.

Telles said that the main goal of the campaign "is to affect all those here at Palomar, but it also has a greater scope. We all have a responsibility and we all have the influence to create change. Palomar is simply the starting point."

Teams are allotted points for hour increments of clean-up activities. Examples of activities include gum removal, cleaning recycling bins, picking up trash around the campus and cleaning the Child Development Center. Teams sign up and then come in at certain times for each supervised event. Points are awarded based on how much is accomplished and how tedious the task was.

"This is not just a Palomar campaign," Telles said. "With a little time, we really can make a difference on how our surroundings look and contribute to the well-being of the environment."

There are currently about a dozen teams. Both students and staff are encouraged to join the campaign. For more information, e-mail mission_2B_cleanandgreen@yahoo.com.

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