April 08, 2010

Contact:   Stacey Schmeidel, 704/894-2798

Davidson, NC -- What if you could create energy while you exercised?

It turns out that you can!

Davidson College will unveil its new "Green Gym" equipment Friday, April 9, at 2 p.m., in the Nisbet Fitness Center (1st floor of the Alvarez College Union). Davidson President Tom Ross will don workout gear to demonstrate how the new machines work. The event is open to the public at no charge.

Three new elliptical machines capture the energy created during a workout and convert it to usable electricity. That electricity is then put into the electrical grid of the Alvarez College Union.
The project is the brainchild of Davidson College sophomore Alexis Valauri-Orton, who received a $10,000 Brita Filter For Good grant and a Davidson College Green Grant to implement her idea. Built by PreCor, the elliptical machines were retrofitted by a Florida-based company, ReRev, to capture and convert the energy.

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,800 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages, giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding Honor Code is central to student life at the college.

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