Cal U will celebrate Earth Day with many activities inside the Natali Student Center followed by volunteer work on three campus gardens.
Caitlin Foltz, a communications disorders graduate student, helps children plant flowers at Cal U's Learning and Language Center.
Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22. Worldwide, various events are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection.
Coordinated by the Horticulture and Sustainability Club, activities at Cal U will take place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Event coordinator and club president Daja Douglas emphasized the importance of bringing awareness to environmental issues.
“We can’t keep taking the earth’s resources for granted, and our actions affect our future,” Douglas said. “We need to become more conscious, sustainable and eco-friendly now or the resources we have now will not be here for our children, and our children’s children.”
Natali Events
At 11 a.m., Brian Cavanaugh, Cal U’s director of Environmental Health and Safety, will deliver the keynote address in the Performance Center.
More than a dozen clubs will have tables set up near the Food Court to offer their perspectives on Earth Day — for example, the College Democrats and College Republicans will focus on environmental policies; the Mathematics Association of America will provide information on math and nature; and the Black Student Union will focus on environmental racism.
The Horticulture and Sustainability Club will be selling seeds and plant starters.
Students from Advanced Drawing classes will show drawings on environmental themes and animal drawings from the biology collection in Frich Hall. Students will also be working on large-drawing murals inside the Performance Center from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Students from Advanced Painting classes will have an exhibition of earth-related paintings on easels in front of the Performance Center.
From 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Cal U Dining and Hospitality Services will hold its annual Earth Day Picnic throughout the Gold Rush, including the dining hall and patio.
Campus Gardens
Various fraternities, sororities, clubs and several athletic teams will be tending to three campus gardens from 4-7 p.m. April 22.
Students will be planting and sprucing up the sensory garden located outside the Learning and Language Center in Morgan Hall.
Volunteers will also install a pollination garden in front of Frich Hall and plant crops at SAI Farm. Transportation to and from the farm will be available in front of the Natali Student Center.
The crops are used to increase food security for students via the Cal U Cupboard.
For more information about Earth Day at Cal U, contact Douglas at dou2509@calu.edu or Dr. Sarah Meiss at meiss@calu.edu.