Students at Shippensburg University took full advantage of being located along the Rails-to-Trails on April 1 as students hit the trails to run a 5K in order to raise money and awareness for Kids Saving the Rainforest (KSTR).

SU’s Students for Environmental Action and Sustainability (SEAS) teamed up with KSTR to hold its first 5k. KSTR is a non-profit organization founded in 1999 by two 9-year-old girls looking for a purpose in educating people about the ecological importance of the rainforest. SEAS will be donating 100 percent of its profit from the run and T-shirt sales to KSTR. Aside from raising money for KSTR, SEAS’s goal was to bring awareness to SU students and encourage them to get involved.

“Our main goal is simply just to bring a little awareness to major environmental issues and help people to understand that we can make a difference as students, especially on this campus,” said Caitlin Lucas, SEAS’s vice president.

Before the run, students had the opportunity to meet with guest speaker David Radcliff from New Community Project to hear about environmental issues and human trafficking. Radcliff even stopped by the run to give some words of encouragement to runners.

“Everyone had a great time and really seemed to enjoy the day, as well as our speaker, David. He is so inspirational. I just hope that next year we can make this event even bigger now that we have some experience under our belts,” Lucas said.

April is a very active month for SEAS students due to the anticipation of Earth Day. Earth Day celebrations are on April 20 at SU. The celebration is filled with many activities and events that are to be announced at a later date. SEAS also held a stream cleanup at Burd Run on April 3 and will be participating in Stewardship Week.

“Stewardship Week is an initiative set up by faculty, students and community members to promote individual effort to actively clean up our community, educate the public and practice sustainable ways to live, even in small ways, every day,” Lucas said. “The goal is to help people adapt their lifestyles long term to better the world, one individual effort at a time. “

If you are interested in partaking in Stewardship Week or becoming a SEAS member, SEAS holds meetings every Monday at 7 p.m. in McFeely’s, located in the Ceddia Union Building. For additional information, you can contact enviro@ship.edu or CL6707@ship.edu.

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