Get Ready for Earth Week!
Get Ready for Earth Week!
by Ruby LaBrusciano-Carris
It only comes but once a year… it’s Earth Day—the yearly celebration of our planet and all things earth-y which, at UVM becomes the weeklong festival that we have come to know and love as Earth Week. This year, there is fun, freebies, and things to do for every single day of Earth Week, and just to make sure that you make the most of the festival, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite events that you should be sure to put on your calendar! Happy Earth-loving!
Events are being kicked off bright and early with Meatless Monday, which is a campus-wide pledge to stay away from meat products for the day. The amount of energy that it takes to raise animals, make them into meat, and then get them to your plate in Vermont is immense, and not very good for the Earth, and removing yourself from this chain of events for even a day can make a huge difference. Everyone can join in and avoid meat in order to have an impact in an easy and beneficial way.
Later on Monday night, join the UVM Program Board for Crafts and Snacks, (two of our favorite things!) at 7pm in the Mount Mansfield Room. You really can’t go wrong with this combo of free food and earth-loving crafts for a way to wile away a Monday night!
Once Tuesday morning rolls away, we will have made it to EARTH DAY! Get your day started with the Earth Day Activism Fair, where you can learn about all the different ways that you can be an activist and engage to better the planet. Even if you’ve only got a minute between classes, it is easy to walk right through the fair, which will be located in the Davis Center Walkway starting at 11am.
More fun continues into the afternoon, when UVM is going to take a three hundred and sixty degree Earth Day Photo, which anyone and everyone can be in! It will be taken from the Davis Center green roof with a 360-degree camera, on Tuesday at 12:45pm, and as if being in the photo isn’t fun enough, you’ll also get free t-shirt out of the deal! Can’t go wrong, am I right?
Once you’ve been bedecked in your free t-shirt form the photo, make sure that you don’t miss out on the FREE Bike-Powered Localvore Milkshakes on Tuesday in the Davis Center Marketplace at 4:30! Because they’re bike-powered, you can walk away happy knowing that your milkshake used (mostly) only human energy to be produced!
On Wednesday, don’t miss the opportunity to see our Vermont State Senator David Zuckerman speak on some of the issues that are most important to him in his lecture; Farming, Food, Politics. He’ll be at the Waterman Memorial Lounge at 6pm—the lecture will be free, informative, and eye-opening.
During the day on Wednesday, you might run into the Farmer’s Market, which will be happening outside on the Davis Center Walkway, now that we’ve finally made it to some warm weather! Things will get groovy with music by Squimley and the Woolens to compliment your localvore shopping experience, and be sure to find the “Smoothie Bike” courtesty of Slow Food and Oxfam, the Spork Giveaway, FeelLocal Sandwich at FeelGood, or the opportunity to “Doctor Your Bike” from the UVM Bike User’s Group who are going to be selling discounted helmets ($10) and offering bike tuneups! This is going to be an unbeatable farmer’s market!
Get into your reduce, reuse, recycle groove on Thursday at the VSTEP-sponsored Clothing Swap, which will be happening at 2pm in the Davis Center Rosa Parks Room. People have been spring-cleaning their closets and donating clothes in boxes located across campus all week, so there are sure to be tons of good scores! Come early to stuff a bag!
On Friday, if you’re a maple-lover than you can’t miss out on the Maple Fest at Brennan’s from 11am-1pm. Brennan’s will be offering some tasty maple syrup samplings and tastings, and since when does anyone from UVM turn down free food or anything maple?
Lastly, but certainly not least, the week will culminate at the Vermont Student Climate Coalition Conference on Saturday the 26th at 11am. You have to sign up in advance at http://bit.ly/vsccconvergence, but if you do, you’ll be able to learn more about how to create action projects and activism at your school, as well as take the opportunity to network and meet other students and people interested in creating environmental change and awareness. Added bonus: lunch included!
So there you have it! And the best part is—this is only just the tip of the iceberg of everything that will be going on next week, and you can be sure that you don’t want to miss out. To find out more about Earth Week events, check out the BORED calendar, look for the “Interests” tab, and scroll down to “Earth Week”, to see a compiled list of all things Earth Week related!
