Lit by the romantic light of LED candles, a freshman telecommunication major Katie Kincaid and her boyfriend, a sophomore architecture major Vohn Wilson shared a Valentine's meal of Italian sausage sandwiches and pie for dessert at America's Buffet in LaFollette Complex.
"I thought it'd be fun to come to someplace where we could just use our dinner swipe without actually spending any money," Kincaid said.
With the romantic setting, they learned about energy efficiency while they were there.
Ball State Dining joined Ball State Energy Action Team and put their own spin on Tuesday's holiday by presenting ‘Dinner by Candlelight' at both America's Buffet from 5-7:30 p.m. and The Retreat in Noyer Complex from 5-8 p.m.
BEAT president and senior advising major Megan Gish said the goal of the event was to promote the Residence Hall Energy Challenge.
BEAT asked students to sign energy challenge pledge cards as they entered each dining place. The pledges said students would try to save energy by unplugging their electronics when they're not using them and turning off lights when they leave a room.
‘Dinner by Candlelight' ran congruent with The Residence Hall Energy Challenge, which started February 6 and will go until March 5, according to Gish. The Challenge is a competition in all the residence halls to reduce their electricity usage. According to Ball State's website, the winning residence hall or apartment complex will receive the Lamp Trophy, a retrofitted table lamp from Goodwill with a compact fluorescent light bulb in it.
"We wanted some simple things to reduce energy and to help their hall win this competition," Gish said, of why BEAT asked students to sign pledges.
Some students, like sophomore psychology major Brock Sumner, said he unplugs everything in his room to save energy.
"I would use candles in my room if we were allowed to in the dorms," he said.
Junior Public Relations major and BEAT member Abby Rondot said she thinks the event went really well because BEAT was able to speak to every student who came into the dining area about what the energy challenge was and have them sign a pledge card to save energy.
"It's cool," Sumner said. "They get the lights off, and they have chocolate kisses. I don't know, it's festive and it's energy efficient. So I'm killing two birds with one stone."
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