Earth Week Festivities Promote Activism & Awareness

The smell of burgers sizzling on the grill permeated the cold afternoon air in front of Proctor dining hall. Students representing various campus groups stood by tables and bulletin boards with colorful posters, tubs of ice cream, and an assortment of cookies fresh from the Weybridge House oven to engage students strolling around the terrace checking out the displays.

At one station, attendees bedecked themselves with temporary tattoos depicting flowers, turtles, and other earth-themed images. Beside this, some made pledges to practice a specific eco-friendly behavior, writing it down on a whiteboard and posing for a picture with it. A crowd had gathered to enjoy the celebrations comprising the Earth Week Festival, the highlight of last week’s Earth Week events.

According to Karina Toy ’17, a member of the seven-person CSC energy subgroup that envisioned and planned the event, Earth Week’s significance lay in its goal of raising awareness about contemporary environmental issues and ways to be more sustainable.

“We thought it’d be a great way to get everyone together and talking,” she said. “We tried to definitely get a lot of different groups to tie in the Earth Week theme to their usual events to raise its relevance to other people who may not come on Friday.”

Toy’s teammate, Kathleen Wilson ’18, emphasized the importance of bringing together as many individuals and groups across campus as possible, rather than just activist organizations, under the Earth Week banner.

Sponsored by the Campus Sustainability Coordinators (CSCs), Earth Week consisted of multiple events involving around  20 student organizations. It began with an environmentally-oriented session led by the informal guided meditation group, Prajna, on Monday night.

On Wednesday evening, the Mountain Club screened “An American Ascent”. The documentary portrayed the challenges confronting the first African American expedition to the peak of Denali, North America’s highest point. The nine-person team aimed to inspire inner city kids to embrace the outdoors. That same evening, Sierra Jackson ’18 ran a photography exhibit named “eARTh Day: A Progression of Black Resistance and Its Relation to Environmental Justice,” to honor the thousands of black people who have been killed in the recent past from environmentally-related injustices.

Additionally, Faculty Member at Bennington College and Senior Associate at The Center for the Advancement of Public Action, David Bond, delivered a presentation called “Ethical Oil: The Moral Economy of Nature and Culture in the Tar Sands of Alberta” at Thursday’s Environmental Studies Woodin Colloquium. The idea for celebrating Earth Day germinated from another CSC, Esteban Arenas ’18. After scrapping their original plan of asking the College community to limit their power consumption that day, the CSCs brainstormed an intimate week-long celebration unlike any other from recent years. It required two-and-a-half months of preparation to reach out and coordinate dozens of student groups.

One student who stopped by at the beginning of the Earth Week Festival, Camille Kim ’16, reflected on the event.

“It was pretty laid back and informative,” she said. “The people whose experiences were being showcased were really enthusiastic to talk about their work. I thought it was a cool opportunity to check out what people have been doing on campus, especially since with my major and interests, I’m not usually all that involved with environmental activism here.”

The Earth Week Festival took place on a late Friday afternoon. It featured a song by the ASL Club, as well as performances by  the Paradiddles, Mchaka Mchaka, 4:30 Jazz Combo, On Tap, RIDDIM and Capoeira. In addition, Prajna conducted a meditation session at the event and Middlebury horticulturalist Tim Parsons led a campus tree tour. This year’s Environmental Grant recipients gave presentations on their projects, and the Sunday Night Group (SNG) talked about the Keystone Pipeline and divestment. Weybridge, the Middlebury College Organic Farm (MCOF), and Queers and Allies (Q&A) also hosted tables on various environmental and social issues.

The ground was too wet for planting at the Spring Planting Festival organized by MCOF on Saturday evening at the farm. Still, the outdoor oven was hot, baking pizza for attendees who huddled around a bonfire long after the sunset, and listened to performances by Iron Eyes Cody and Mt. Philo.

On Sunday night,  an Earth Week Picnic dinner at the Xenia house, and a special Sunday Night Group (SNG) meeting, rounded up the week.

“[Environmental problems] are shared by everybody,” event coordinator Lily Wilson ’18 said. “It really is supposed to be a group effort. We’re all affected by this and we all have the power to change something.”