Bedford College Sustainability Day

Turn to the next page to read a student’s review of the day

This one off special edition of The Edge covers Sustainability Day which happened on the 22nd March 2012, with activities and information from a wide range of organisations and stalls in the sports halls from 10am - 4pm. This edition was reviewed,

created and published all in one day!

If you want to get involved in the regular editions of the student magazine please email mag.student@bedford.ac.uk or

see Lucy in Yourspace

Students in Yourspace joined in by playing activities such as ‘cheese trumps’ and a ‘hex game for plumbers’ all involving greener topics and sustainable facts!

Sustainability Day by Lynda Di Marco Sustainability Day was a fun, family-friendly event for everyone. Schools from across Bedford and Bedford College students were the guests of honour for the day. I, too, decided to come along and join the fun… My favourite part of the Day was the sewing workshop. Here, you can sew things like cushions, soft toys (‘chick, chick, chicken’, ‘foxy gentleman’, a chicken and a fox respectively) and more resourceful items like an apple pin cushion and a purse card holder. I particularly had a great time at this stall where I decided to make my own cushion. Sarah from Shuttleworth College, who was in charge of the stall, was so easy-going and friendly to talk to. She showed me how to measure squares of fabric with a ruler, then draw around it and cut them out and gave me some good guidance of how to use a sewing machine. I’ve never been a big fan of sewing and I am rubbish at setting up a sewing machine, despite the fact that I used to study Textiles here years ago. I decided that my cushion should have a chicken motif, which I drew onto fabric using a tem-plate, and then I cut it out. I also dabbled in using appliqué techniques to embellish the chicken, by sewing scraps of cloth and ribbon onto it, with a button for the eye and extra buttons surrounding it of various colours. After I stuffed the cushion, I then sewed it up using the sewing machine and I was very impressed with the final result. Sarah and Laura were very impressed too, complimenting on my creative sewing skills and dedication to the task because I was so focussed and paid great attention to detail while working.

Later, I designed my own shopping bag at the stall next door. This was more of a rushed affair for me. I printed designs onto my bag using wooden stampers and fabric paint and glued on ribbon strips and buttons onto it. What a re-sourceful item – and it looks beautiful and stylish too when you go out shop-ping. Other highlights of the day included a stall operated by Harrold Odell Woodland Park, who run a lot of nature-themed programmes in conjunction with local schools.. Here, you can make your own baskets, wreaths and sculptures out of thin strips of wood from willow trees, which are chopped down and the wood harvested from them but the trees often regrow soon after. If you like, you can decorate your creations using sprigs of holly, ribbons and feathers.

Schoolchildren friendly activities comprised of ‘Elephantastic!’ – a stall where you can create your own model elephants out of recyclable materials such as milk bottles and decorate them using art and craft materials like plastic straws, glass eyes, stickers, emery boards, crayons, sequins and other embellish-ments of your choice. Other art-based activities to keep the youngsters inter-ested included paint your own paint palette using poster paints and drawing any picture you like on a paper reel.

For the sporty person who’s excited about the upcoming Olympic Games, these activities certainly make for a good warm-up. ‘Can Smash’ – see how many cans you can knock down , a bowling-themed activity entitled ‘The Bedford Super Bowl’ – knock down as many bottle ‘skittles’ as you can by rolling a ball down a makeshift bowling alley, ‘What’s Your Watts’ – can you produce the same amount of watts on a rowing machine as an iron, a hairdryer, a washing machine, etc.?

‘Ready, Steady Go!’ (not to be confused with the 1960s pop music show of the same name) is an exercise which helps you to identify what categories of rub-bish goes into which container and whether they can be recycled or not. You have to complete this exercise in as little time as possible. Computer games can also be played. Freebies offered included solar-powered garden lights and en-ergy saving light bulbs. You can even make you own solar-powered oven out of materials like tin foil, black paint and a cardboard box, so that you can gen-erate your own electricity for the home. The seed-planting stall – with the aid of resources such as a makeshift watering can, an egg box and a paper plant – you can grow your own vegetables like carrots, lettuce and other tasty treats without breaking the bank. Entries from the Photography Competition were also put on display, with the lucky winner taking home a prize of an iTunes voucher worth £15! Also present were information stalls about cycling, fuel economy when driving, bus routes and how to sign up as a volunteer at the forest of Marston Vale. Well, it certainly was a fun and action-packed day. This event had something for all ages and catered to everyone’s taste. It was educational and the best thing about today was that it made us all realise how we can all do our bit to protect the environment by making the most of the resources we already have and converting old things into new products. It brought out my creative streak and it was good that so many people from different walks of like came today and learned about the bit they can all do for the planet, however small their contribution.