Pictured from left to right are Morgan Penrod, Emily Chezum, Carson Wendhausen, Matthew Mendoza, Mitchel Guzzle, and Dr. Jason Senjem. Photo courtesy of Enactus.

An eco-friendly alternative just in time for Earth Day, Enactus is encouraging students to become more engaged in their community through a bike rental program. 

“Having bikes available on campus gives students an affordable and convenient opportunity to explore the parks and shops in the campus community area,” Emily Chezum, Enactus president, said.  

Enactus is an entrepreneurial-based group of students, academics and business leaders that “aims to empower people to transform opportunities into real, sustainable progress for themselves and their communities.” 

Previously, they’ve completed projects like developing recycling plans for area parks, designing and remodeling local special needs classrooms and working with the Main Street Iowa program to improve the business community. 

This semester they’ve turned their attention to implementing a bike rental program, with their ultimate goal being to turn SAU into a certified bike-friendly campus.

The main people working on this project are Emily Chezum, Enactus President; Morgan Penrod, Enactus Vice-President; Matt Mendoza, Enactus Projects Leader; Michael Showers; and Carson Wendhausen, with the help of Dr. Jason Senjem, the Enactus Advisor.

They began work on this project at the start of this semester and have so far collected 15 bicycles total through donations and other various means. Their current plan is to store these bikes in the WRC, and they’re working on moving the waiver required to rent a bike to an online format. 

Besides having the bikes available to rent, the group also plans to make and provide a map of local bike paths that people can get out and enjoy. 

“We hope that students just have fun and that they take advantage of an opportunity to be outside and support local businesses,” Chezum said. 

SAU Enactus has also submitted this project to the Enactus United States National Exposition competition, running from April 12 through April 16. 

This online exposition for Enactus groups across the country has multiple categories depending on how far along a group’s project is, and the SAU Enactus has submitted their project to the early stage competition. This requires them to make and submit a seven-minute video that will be shown nationwide. 

More information on Enactus can be found here, and the group can be contacted via email at [email protected].