Students celebrate Earth Day

Margaret Oliphant
Video Editor

The unofficial Earth Day flag was created by John McConnell in 1970. Public domain photo from Wikimedia Commons

Students are celebrating Earth Day with Gardening Club and Environmental Club, their thoughts and ideas for projects on Earth Day and Forest Park’s plans for their annual celebration and projects.

Gardening club meets at 8 a.m. every Thursday in room 385 with sponsor Skylar Garcia, biology teacher, and is led by juniors Sarah Staab, Tessa Garrison and Ava Fitzgibbon. So far, they have been planting various plants indoors due to the cold weather. However when it warms up they plan to move projects outside.

The group has been looking for various volunteer opportunities around town; however, they have been unsuccessful due to not having an out of school location. As the weather warms up members plan on planting more outside.

With Earth Day approaching on Saturday, April 22, Garrison and Staab have looked into different opportunities to unite, such as fundraisers and getting together for volunteer opportunities around town.

“Especially with the changing climate right now, it’s important to have a time where everyone can come together to make a larger difference,” Staab said.

The Forest Park Earth Day Festival  takes place during April 22-23, for free. Activities such as numerous vendors, a bird show, upper limits climbing walls, a sustainable fashion show, and a large array of live performances are available.

The event usually has around 20,000 attendees from across St Louis, according to the Earth Day 365 blog.

According to the 2023 Forest Park press release, the festival’s main goal has been to inspire St Louis to live a more sustainable lifestyle by providing more environmentally stable options for things such as fashion, repair courses and more.

“Every little bit helps so picking up trash you find, shortening showers, turning off lights when they aren’t in use. However there is an unfortunate truth that most pollution comes from big companies, so another thing is to vote. There are a lot of laws that could be made that could really benefit the environment.” senior and environmental club president Calvin Lescher said.

The environmental club will spread awareness through the announcements, and giving some information about the Forest Park festival.

“Even if you can’t vote though, you still have a voice. If we let it be known to companies that we don’t want them polluting that helps, but what helps even more than saying it is to be environmentally conscious while purchasing products. Companies will be a lot more willing to change if they aren’t making as much money because people want them to be greener. If you can buy something that’s a little more expensive, but more green it’ll show the companies that’s what the consumers want, and they’ll change if that’s what they see people paying for,” Lescher said.


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