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During April, several PUC students and staff joined in a two-week effort to clean and repair the dilapidated homes of elderly and disabled citizens living in nearby Calistoga. Teaming with Rebuilding Calistoga, a volunteer organization under the sponsorship of Calistoga Affordable Housing, Inc., they contributed to the restoration of nearly 50 residences, half of which were mobile homes. PUC chaplain Roy Ice helped get the college involved and contributed his own efforts to the rebuilding project. “I think that it’s important to show that PUC is a resource to our community, and not the other way around,” Ice says. The project was conceived by Larry Kromann, a retired school principal and PUC church member, who wanted to find a way to help the elderly. He gathered the help and support of community members for the home repair project, and received the sponsorship of Home Depot, which donated a $5,000 gift card and promised to send out 30 of its employees. A ceremony was held on April 25 to recognize everybody who volunteered. Calistoga mayor Jack Gingles publicly recognized PUC’s contribution and expressed his gratitude towards the college’s involvement. “I want you to take a message back to PUC and your...

This year, Pacific Union College celebrated Earth Day with a fair, a clean-up project, and a special speaker. L. Hunter Lovins, a globally recognized leader and consultant in sustainable practices, arrived with her signature cowboy hat to speak to members of the campus and community during the morning's all-school colloquy and a special evening lecture on “Sustainability in Napa County." At the colloquy program, before Lovins spoke, environmental studies majors Dustin Baumbach and Molly Reeves shared about their internships, one working at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito and one at the Safari West wild animal preserve. Lovins then began her address by introducing the argument for why life as we know it cannot sustain itself; but rather than citing just environmental "drivers of change" and "intolerable signs," she addressed the spectrum from nature to economics to social equity. Then, rather than asking individuals to reduce their carbon footprint or some such practice, she suggested that if we are to meet the challenges and goals of the future and adapt to sustain the planet, we must do so on an entirely new paradigm. This includes "world best practices" for addressing human needs, smart development that is truly sustainable, redesigning education....