"We had no choice but to step up and turn it into a force on campus," Walsh said.

With the help of the recent boom in environmental concern, they worked tirelessly to spread the word about Ecopledge and scope out new members. To date, there are over 600 students on the Ecopledge listeserv, and around 60 active members.

"We were originally just a small group with a common interest," Young said, "and when we grew, we made sure we kept that same spirit even though we had so many more people join."

Aside from rebuilding the Ecopledge community, these five seniors have made significant and lasting changes that have reinvigorated student involvement in environmental concerns.

In their sophomore year alone, they helped create the now-annual Harvest Fest celebration and the Recyclemania competition in the resident halls. By their junior year, the Clean Energy Project was well underway, and the organization's growing success was made evident by their showing of An Inconvenient Truth, with over 300 students in attendance.

Now in their senior year, the girls have worked on more new initiatives than the two previous years combined.

"This is our senior year," Cava said, "so we are making this big push to the finish."

The fall semester kicked off with the Think Outside the Bottle Campaign, which sought to decrease the consumption of bottled water on campus. This spring has seen a wealth of new efforts, including the Environmental Film Series, the organic vegetable garden, the Bulb Brigade, and most recently the installment of three trash compactors on campus.

As the years continue, the efforts of these girls have finally made it to the forefront of the administration's attention, allowing them to find even greater success then they ever anticipated. Nevertheless, the girls have seen the results of the work they've done over the years and know it was not an isolated effort, but rather their long-term dedication to protecting the environment.

Continued...

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