Sunshine and blue skies helped bring people to Central Michigan University’s Earth Day celebration.

Redford senior Jessica Blaesser stopped at the event while walking to class.

“Everybody is so nice and the beautiful day helps with the cause,” Blaesser said. “It’s nice to hear everyone’s voice and opinion on important issues.”

The Student Environmental Alliance and the environmental studies program hosted the event and partnered with 45 different companies and student organizations.

“It’s all our responsibility to help our earth,” said Cheboygan senior Jamie Luttrell.

Booths were set up to promote Earth Day awareness and other important issues. Among the booths were some aimed at getting college students to vote, along with clean air and water demonstrations.

Music played throughout the day, including live music. Students also had the opportunity to make hemp bracelets and climb the rock wall.

Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed service fraternity, participated for the first time this year. The fraternity’s flower, the forget-me-not, is the flower of hope.

Throughout the day, members passed out free forget-me-nots to anyone interested.

“I hope the event will help college students realize they too can help,” Luttrell said.

Dearborn senior Kelley Borton said she has passed the event in previous years, but stopped for the first time this year to see what it was all about.

“It’s an awesome idea that raises awareness and I got even got a forget-me-not flower to plant,” Borton said.

Green Tree Cooperative Grocery, 214 N. Franklin St., had a booth set up for the fifth time. Sarah Christensen, CMU alumna and Green Tree manager, has participated in the event for the past three years.

The Lake Orion native said it is a good way to let people know about the organic food options Green Tree offers.

“Connecting with the student population is good because we are located on the north end of town,” Christensen said. “It’s likely that people would go their whole college career without knowing about us if we weren’t here.”

Campus Dining also participated in Earth Day with a wheel for students to spin to receive a free drink. The wheel was designed to show which items were recyclable and which ones were not.

Campus Dining also encouraged students to go trayless for the rest of the semester to reduce waste and energy use.

news@cm-life.com

E-mail the author: defaultuser