Who says college athletes don’t have time for anything other than practice, classes (and maybe parties)? This fall, eight W&L sports teams added earth stewardship to their commitments in an inaugural partnership between W&L Athletics and COREworks, our new Boxerwood initiative.
COREworks is a community development tool that accelerates earth care projects in Rockbridge via operation of a local carbon offset marketplace. While the marketplace is not live until January 2022, COREworks is already actively promoting its goal of engaging more people in earth care conversation and action. The partnership with W&L Athletics is a way to begin this work with college-age young adults.
W&L Athletes named this specific initiative GEAR (General Earth Action Rally) Up and launched the pilot with eight of its Division III teams. With Boxerwood help, each team’s efforts were coordinated by team members already enthusiastic about stewardship. These Earth Action Leaders (EALs) each organized a specific earth care action with their own teammates. By late November, the eight sports teams (and thus 173 student/athletes) had completed more than a dozen stewardship actions. These actions included collecting recyclables at track meets, planting trees, tending the W&L Campus Garden, and removing more than 90 pounds of litter from Rockbridge parks and trails.
In post-activity surveys, participating students told us they loved the “all-in” team aspect of the opportunity. Team leaders also reported their peers enjoyed exploring Rockbridge beyond campus and most importantly discovering the joys of giving back to the planet and their community. Special shout-out to Boxerwood educator and COREworks Fellow Ginny Johnson (W&L ‘20) and our Boxerwood work study student Sarah Hollen (W&L ‘22), for developing and coordinating this promising new program.
