NextGen brings in former Hawkeye player to encourage voting, climate awareness

In the hopes of raising voting and climate change awareness among college students, NextGen Climate, a political activist organization, brought in Tim Dwight, a former Hawkeye football player who went on to play in the NFL, for a campus event Friday afternoon.

“It’s important to educate these kids a little bit about energy, but also talk with them about how important it is to go out and vote,” Dwight said, adding that people interested in changing the way energy is produced need to understand the role that policy plays in supporting renewable energy.

Dwight, who played for the Atlanta Falcons and the San Diego Chargers, later went on to become a solar energy advocate.

“I retired from football. I was bored. I liked construction and I visited a solar company out in California and I thought, ‘This is going to be everywhere. I want to be a part of this,’” he said, standing in Hubbard Park talking fast and energetically, like a coach in the locker-room.

“People don’t understand that energy is part of our life. They take it for granted,” he said.

Mid-interview he jumped over to help a man figure out how to use an old parking meter.

The temptation of a former Hawkeye star, free sandwiches and NextGen-themed bright orange gear brought in a trickle of students over the lunch hour.

When Matthew Woods and his friend Justin Rowell, both University of Iowa sophomores, walked up to introduce themselves, Dwight asked them whether they planned on voting and how much they knew about climate change.

“It’s nice to see someone who’s passionate,” Woods said, adding that the issue of energy had been largely overshadowed in conversations about the upcoming elections.

He said he was curious to learn more about where candidates stand on renewable energy issues.

“I decided to be a lot more conscious. I wouldn’t say I’ve leaped headfirst into the issue, or decided to devote my life to it, but I wanted to see how people are talking about it,” he said.

Judd Hayes, the Iowa City field organizer for NextGen, said the goal of the afternoon was to raise awareness among students about the issue of climate change and renewable energy and show them how they could take action.

“The biggest thing is to let millennials know about the power in their hands. A lot of them, this is their first time voting,” he said.

Hayes and others with NextGen were on hand to encourage passers-by to register to vote.