HESC goes all out to support Earth Hour

HESC - Earth Hour

HESC’s Earth Hour Campaign – HESC 60+

This year we decided to embrace Earth Hour wholeheartedly. We felt this worthy cause deserved our full attention since everyone that works at HESC has a passion for conservation, and we wanted to do our bit towards taking care of our planet. We thought long and hard about what we could do, and cramming all the ideas we came up with into a single hour just wasn’t going to work.

We were all so full of enthusiasm that we needed to think outside the box!

And that’s when we arrived at the idea to support Earth Hour beyond 2011. Our aim was to make staff and visitors aware of our project, which we’d christened…

Earth Hour 60+

This is what we did:

  • We created a lantern and posted it on Facebook to show the world that we supported Earth Hour and had a vested interest in the wellbeing of our planet.
  • On the 26th of March 2011 we put up posters all over the Centre in a bid to persuade visitors to join us in supporting Earth Hour.
  • The guides spoke to the guests about Earth Hour during their hourly tours. Explaining how they could participate, as well as the importance of doing so.
  • Mrs Roode (HESC’s founder) and all the staff members signed an Earth Hour pledge.
  • Staff members – Henk Labuschagne and Jaces Bornman – gave a speech about everything one can do in support of Earth Hour and saving the planet. It boiled down to the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!
  • We turned off all our lights between 20h30 and 21h30 and sat around the fire toasting marshmallows and chatting. What a blast!

HESC - Earth-Hour-speech

HESC’s staff members – Henk Labuschagne and Jaces Bornman – giving their three R’s speech

The pièce de résistance…

We celebrated by making a huge fire in total darkness that stated our intention: HESC 60 +, which means that HESC supports Earth hour 2011 and beyond. It was a spectacular sight that gave all of us goose bumps!

The important stuff:

  • We replaced the majority of our globes with energy efficient ones
  • We turned down our refrigerators and geysers
  • We are still working our way down a long list of things that need attention, such as checking all taps for leaks, making sure all refrigerators seal tightly, putting blankets over our geysers etc. Whew…there is so much to do, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

On the 27th of March we had a school visit us all the from Canada. Bertus Potgieter gave them a 20 minute speech about Earth Hour, covering topics such as reducing waste and saving energy. He explained how the small things in life can make a real difference, arriving at our slogan:

The power of one is boundless!

All in all it was really a fantastic project to tackle, and we have no doubt that we will follow through on our promise to support Earth Hour beyond 2011. Visit our Facebook and Flikr albums to see more photos.

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