Designed as an effort to create more options for students to get involved in the act of environmental stewardship, the Creation Care Townhouse is continuing to have an impact. Houghton’s Sustainability Coordinator, Brian Webb, sent out an e-mail last summer to all townhouse residents, seeking anyone who was interested in the opportunity to pursue creation care. Webb said that his purpose in creating the Creation Care House was to designate a place that could engage students on the topic of creation care in a more intentional and ongoing way. “I was familiar with the model of a living learning community…I really liked the idea of taking that model and applying the topic of creation care to it, particularly since creation care, stewardship, sustainability, whatever you want to call it, is very appropriate to the residential context.” Webb also said that these types of communities are particularly impactful because when students go on to live on their own, they are able to take the principles they’ve implemented and continue them into an awareness of how their habits impact the world.
After conferring among their housemates, future residents of Perkins 49 took Webb up on his offer. House member Lauren Bull stated that their admittance into the house was anything but grueling. “There wasn’t really a formal selection, we just kind of volunteered,” she said. Her housemates include Winona Wixson, Brittany Libby, Lydia Wilson, Jory Kauffman, and Amy Eckendorf. After the group had been selected, a number of different options were afforded to them in terms of which area of creation care they wanted to explore. The group chose food and water.
Bull said this meant they would be composting, low-flow faucets and toilets would be installedin the house, as well as having monthly meetings and brainstorming sessions with Brian Webb to learn more about sustainable food practices and the difficulty of eating organically in college, among other things. It was all part of this initiative that moved two large composting bins to the townhouse area, available for all residents’ usage.Webb said his goal for designating the Creation Care House was to create something that was both internally and externally focused in educating and encouraging good stewardship practices within the townhouse, as well as enabling the students to take their knowledge to the community, particularly in the other townhouses. Last semester, the group sponsored a visit to a local farm where all the vegetables were naturally grown. Bull said the visit along with listening to the farmer and his wife talk about his farming practices was part of the learning process of coming to awareness in being more intentional. “It’s really cool to see how achievable it is. They made it look very attainable.” The venture was posted with only 24 slots, all of which were filled. The first of this month marked a showing of the documentary Fresh, examining America’s food system, all organized and promoted by the Creation Care House. They are currently planning gardening workshops to be held later this semester.
As for the future of the program, Webb said he is leaving room for expansion. “Ideally,” he said, “I would like to get two houses next year. If I had two quality applications from groups of students who are committed to it, then I would accept two houses.” He also mentioned that the following year’s application process would be a little more difficult, hoping for more of a competitive bidding process, not made possible this year because of the rapidness with which this was developed. He is also hoping that next year the Creation Care House will be able to bring in some sort of creation care expert each month about their area of expertise, adding weight to the program’s intentionality and credibility. In its educational and communal benefits as well as its perceptible success, the Creation Care House has measured out to be something sustainable in itself.