ANNE RITZ
News Editor
To kick-off Earth Week and the celebration Earth Day, an all day teach-in will be hosted at the College Lodge on Tuesday, April 22.
The day will begin at 9 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. with a variety of 50 minute events throughout the day. There will be different talks throughout the day in a variety of topics relating the the environment. Some events include “Celebrating Environmental Activism” and “Celebrating Environmental Literature.” There will also be several hands-on events such as a wildflower drawing class, a nature writing class and an invasive species removal.
This is the first time that Fredonia will be holding this type of a all-day teach-in event on Earth Day at the College Lodge. “In efforts to utilize the Lodge more, we thought it would be great to have something that would be a big splash,” said Jarvis.
Jarvis explained that the teach-in will be one full day that has 23 distinct events that work to get students into nature.
“There’s events simultaneously but we’re taking people out on trails, there are talks inside the Lodge, there will be floating naturalists utilizing the interior space and exterior space, actual hands on kind of classes … ” she said.
There will be two free shuttle buses running between 9:30 a.m. and ending at 5 p.m. The buses will depart between Rockefeller and Maytum near ‘Popeye,’ the bright red sculpture.
The response to the new Earth Day teach-in has been positive. “I think a lot of students are pretty excited, especially the ones who’ve been there. I think the real challenge is getting students who have never been to the Lodge up there. So one of the things we wanted to do with the teach-in is just physically get a lot of students. So actually a lot of classes are already scheduled to go so that’s great. And we have two busses that will be going to make sure there’s transportation,” Jarvis said.
Jarvis finds that once students experience the College Lodge, they love it and often return.
She explained that the College Lodge is 200 acres of beautiful, mature forest and is filled with wildlife, peacefulness and serenity. There are several different rare and endangered and protected plants to see at the Lodge.
“I hope they want to come back. I hope that they form a connection to place and they realize that the College Lodge is part of the college. That they can go up there anytime. They can cross-country ski or snowshoe or trail hike or just go when they wanna get away from stress and exams or something,” she said.
“I want them to feel that that is also part of the college and a place where they can be in nature and have that connection to place.”
In addition to the teach-in on Earth Day, there will be several events throughout Earth Week. Different events will include a water tasting challenge, a woodlot clean-up, an environmental film festival, a beach clean-up and a garlic mustard pull to name a few.
For a full calendar of Earth Week events, visit http://www.fredonia.edu/gogreen/earthweek/EWcalendar.asp