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HEADLINES

Purple football players go green: Travelling to Abu Dhabi

By Mike Hickey, Special to the Record (Thursday, January 4, 2007)
Too often in the world of sports we hear horror stories about bad behaviour among the elite of professional athletes. The National Football League has been dubbed the National Felon League while other well-known so-called superstars become involved with drug abuse, violent assaults or are labeled as deadbeat fathers.

That is why it was so uplifting to hear of two Bishop's University football players who announced this holiday season that they were headed to United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this month to attend the International Conference on Integrated Sustainable Energy Resources in Arid Regions.

Gaiter defensive lineman Charles Burke and Simon Jones will be tackling problems a little more complex than a roving quarterback or an elusive running back when they head to the Middle East to participate in the international forum that will debate various problems that affect some of the poorest areas in the world.

Environment 2007 is a conference and exhibition held Jan. 28 to 31 in Abu Dhabi, and is the fourth held under the patronage of UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The focus will be on air, energy, water and waste. It will feature more than 1,000 international ambassadors, political delegates and leading environmental scientists presenting papers on the world's most pertinent energy topics. Not to mention two student athletes from Lennoxville.

They'll learn about assessing the potential and possible applications of sustainable energy resources management and technologies, plus the development and integration of natural energy resources, including fossil fuels and renewable energy.

Organizers hope to identify priorities in developing sustainable energy resources, especially in arid regions, and look at alternative approaches to integrating renewable energy resources with existing fossil fuel-based technologies.

The threats facing future generations are real and both Burke and Jones want to take an active part in finding solutions.

"We know that we have undertaken a huge project in both time and expense," Burke said prior to the Christmas break. "This is not something that we take lightly. Our intended outcome is first and foremost to bring prestige to our university and our department. We, in all likelihood, are the only university in Canada to be represented at this major environmental conference and we hope this opportunity will be a catalyst that will spur on an Environmental Initiative Program at Bishop's, allowing students to broaden their own horizons by attending events in the future. We will attend discussions on the latest planning and energy technologies as well as the environmental problems we face with energy today and beyond."

The pair plans to share their experiences with the Bishop's faculty and their fellow environmental studies students.

"We will collect and record data for our independent study unit. We will also ask questions based on the views of our student peers back at home and record our experiences in a daily email that will be distributed to interested students and professors. Some significant research into the subjects of the conference has already taken place. We have sufficient knowledge, being university juniors, to hold discussions with delegates and interact with the conference as a whole. Our background provided to us in such classes as Global Environmental Change, Human Impact on the Environment, and Resource Management will serve us well in our understanding of seminars and subject papers while we attend information sessions."

The cost of attending the conference for the two student athletes is quite hefty and the pair have embarked on an ambitious fundraising campaign.

They applied to the McConnell Student Opportunity Fund, which encourages projects that foster student innovation, initiative, and self-reliance, by providing students with financial support to pursue practical research and most particularly, employment-related experiences. Examples of student initiatives which could receive support might include academic or career opportunity forums, distinguished speakers, apprenticeship opportunities, cultural exchanges, volunteer efforts -- in short, any activities that nurture the development of new knowledge and aptitude.

They've spoken to student council politicians, professors and even their department chair: "They have expressed support for our project and explained that the department does have money allocated for opportunities of this nature."

They also approached athletic coordinator Joey Sabo in the hopes of holding fundraising efforts in conjunction with future sporting events such as basketball games and athletic auctions, as well as the school's alumni office. The pair realize they will have to cover any financial shortfall out of their own pocket.

"It is unlikely we will be able to completely cover our expenses from any one source," Jones said. "We are prepared to put our full efforts into fundraising as well as fund ourselves through out of pocket expenses if need be. We appreciate all the help and support we have received thus far and any support we garner in the future. Most of all, thank you for your time and thank you for helping us move toward reaching all of our goals both financially but more important, academically."

Jones and Burke feel strongly that there are potential returns for the university. "Hopefully we will bring in additional sponsorships and funding to the department through alumni and fundraising efforts," Burke said. "We hope our study will impact environmental studies students' greater knowledge as well as our own knowledge, all while gaining credit toward completing our degree."

Tomorrow, Burke and Jones will talk about how football became an unlikely catalyst in their desire to make a difference in the world.

© 2007 The Record (Sherbrooke)