USM Student Printz
By Brittney Luna
Unless you live under a rock, chances are you’ve heard about the recent oil spill a million times already. You’ve probably also heard about the decades worth of damage it has caused. However, as a student you may not have heard a lot about what you can actually do to make a difference. Instead of talking about the damage and its effects we should be helping to clean it up and prevent further damagefrom occuring. That won’t happen if we all just keep sitting around talking about it. Being a student you most likely don’t have a considerable amount of funds to donate but there are ways around this. You can form a fundraisingevent such as doing a carwash, mowing yards, etc. After you’ve gathered the funds through afundraising event then you could choose an organization that is important to you and donate the money to help the organization with expenses such as clean up supplies and medicinefor injured wildlife. You can also search for volunteer opportunities if you have some time to dedicate. Some items that you no longer use can be donated to help with the oil spill such as polypropylene pompoms, which are the old school, long stranded pom poms. A weird but extremely useful remedy for an oil spill is hair. Yes, hair! Students can go to their local salons, dog groomers, etc and ask that they donate leftover hair remnants to Matter of Trust, an organization that takes hair from all over the world and makes booms and mats used for soaking up oil. Dreads are even accepted! What a great environmentally friendly way to soakup oil! Hair is able to do this because it naturally soaks up oil hence the reason we shampoo our hair. Some students work full time in the summer and may not have the time to volunteer or extra money to donate. These students can gather pictures from the coast and send to their friends and family that wouldn’t otherwise get to see the harsh reality of what is happening on the coast. While the student may not have thetime or money available, friends or family members may want to get involved. A friend of mine did this and got a great response. Here are some pictures she sent her family:
Remember just because you’re a student doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to help out during this difficult time. There’s plenty you can do and I hope I have convinced you to take some action. Get involved!
Rhetorical Situation:
I feel like the current situation of the oil spill situation is extremely important especially to our community. Since USM is located only an hour or so from the Gulf Coast I think it should be on everyone’s mind how close to home this is going to hit. And it’s not just going to affect the coastline. It’s going to affect the whole country possibly the entire world. Many people don’t think about it but it’s the oceans that really make the difference in the world. If the oceans are destroyed, people are destroyed. The oceans account for over 70% of Earth. What’s an important thing in the oceans for all life on Earth? Algae. Algae takes carbon dioxide and converts it to oxygen. Thus, the oceans provide a massive amount of the world’s oxygen. The ocean is where the most basic part of the food chain is located. If it gets messed up, everything will get messed up. That’s why it is so important to clean up this oil spill mess. This article would be great for The Student Printz, USM’s student newspaper, because it is targeted towards the students of USM. My mission was to encourage students to want to get involved by giving them some basic ideas on what they could do to get started.
Here are some great organizations in need of donations:
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