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Another cardboard boat. Images courtesy of Robin Kuprewicz.

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The Polar Bear Swim-a-thon had nothing to do with the temperature of the water, but instead, the plight of the polar bears around the world. Members of the RSO Students for Environmental Concerns joined together to help raise awareness about global environmental change over the course of the past month and a half.

Many students have seen An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary that won Al Gore a Nobel Prize and really opened the eyes of many Americans in relations to global environmental change. A question, though, many people had was “What can I do to help?”

The plight of the polar bear, as seen in the documentary and as reported in many media outlets, is one of the many instances of actual living things being directly affected by our environmental changes. Polar bears are drowning as a result of melting glaciers, and food is also becoming scarce.

Members of the Students for Environmental Concerns came together to make a difference. 22 students raised funds individually and as a group to help. “With the money we raised, we were able to adopt a polar bear through the World Wildlife Fund,” said Robin Kuprewicz, coordinator of the program.

The last day of the process was the Polar Bear Swim-a-thon. On April 19, five teams of students built boats out of cardboard to race in Freer Pool. There were prizes with a polar bear theme, food, and fun for the teams celebrating their success.