"Green" and Virgin Fun...

Happy Friday everybody!

Whew! What an awesome week. (had a great time at the Grove last night too).

The Virgin HealthMiles kickoff on Wednesday went great. We had a great showing of students and administrators. President Shalala gave some remarks followed by Andrew Pelosi (VP of Marketing and Consumer Engagement). Meanwhile Daryk Pengelly from Virgin also debuted the Wii Fit video game (direct from Japan)! Students had a great time being active while learning more about the HealthMiles program. We had DJ Willy C on hand playing awesome music on the patio, with Vitamin Water giving out free Vitamin Energy drinks and Smart Water, Apple's campus rep Melissa Gerber passing out Apple materials and donating an iPod touch that will be raffled off to the first Virgin HealthMiles members who sign up! I'll put up the link to the video and more media content when they become available. Meanwhile, here is a link to the Hurricane's article covering the event: "New rewards-based initiative Virgin HealthMiles encourages students to be active"

Here are some pictures of Sebastian and students having some fun in the UC Lower Lounge with the Nintendo Wii:

Above: Daryk having some fun with Sebastian during a tennis match. I think Sebastian won...

Above: Me attempting to swing a virtual racquet. It's not the easiest thing in the world.

Tara Irani, Executive-at-Large External, is working on getting health magazine subscriptions at the Wellness Center. Men's Health, Women's Health, Fitness Magazine, and others! We'll keep you posted on the progress of this.

I recently was invited to join a Facebook group called: "Energy Saving Lightbulbs to be used at the University of Miami". I am fully supportive of this initiative, and in fact made several inquiries with administrators and made them aware of the petition. Here is an email response sent by Mr. Johnny Williams, the Facilities Manager:

The bulbs referenced in the student petition are in fact being used by
Facilities now. Whenever we have a request to change out a light bulb and find
the burned-out bulb is an incandescent, we replace it with the CFL. As a rough
estimate, I would say that 70% or more of the bulbs in Housing areas have been
switched over to the CFL. We have started doing the same in the Village. We have
had a recycling program for used bulbs and ballasts in place for some time now.
Thank you, Johnny Williams Facilities Manager

So as can be seen by the email, Facilities is actively moving towards energy saving lightbulbs, although maybe they can be more proactive... We'll continue encouraging them. Meanwhile, my name is on the petition. Good job Earth Alert!

Speaking of "green", Jenny Burrows (VP of Sustainable U) has drafted a great proposal for a Green Career Fair! We have a meeting set up for next week to present it to the Toppel Career Center to see how we can proceed. Should be a great event if we can make it happen! Good job Jenny!

That's enough out of me for now... Have a great weekend! My plan for the weekend: wellness center, monty's, south beach, SG work, and STUDY!! Work Hard, Play Hard!

- dc