Some Iowa State students are spending the summer working to save the environment.

Students concerned about the environment and environmental issues are involved in a grass roots campaign in a small, hot building in downtown Ames hoping to raise public awareness of environmental issues.

Campaign director Dannielle Lucas said the group of students works for two non-profit organizations — the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), which deals with clean-air issues, and the Sierra Club, which is the oldest and largest environmental group. The Sierra Club is concerned with U.S. national parks, Lucas said.

Both organizations’ goals are to act as watchdogs for environmental, consumer and democracy issues.

The Sierra Club hires people to work for the summer, Lucas said. Three-quarters of the staff is ISU students. Students can make anywhere from $2,500 to $4,000 in a summer.

The main goals for students this summer are to inform the public through education, to gain financial and political support and to get people to become active members of the Sierra Club, Lucas said.

For students to reach their goals, most of them are involved in door-to-door and phone campaigns, Lucas said.

Since the Sierra Club is a non-profit organization, all of the money to run the campaigns comes from current members and new members students get to participate in the club because they care about environmental issues. All the furniture, computers and phones are donated, so all the money goes directly into the campaigns, Lucas said.

The Sierra Club is a national group in 35 different states and 65 cities. Before the summer is out, the Sierra Club hopes to have 170,000 new members and will have raised 2.2 million dollars, Lucas said.