Goal 3 | Empowering members of our networks to positively impact our community Objective | Maximize responsible action
Collective effort attracts 4,000 for Earth Day Festival
Every year since 1970, Earth Day celebrations have been held around the world on April 22 to demonstrate support for the environment. For the past two years, dozens of community members have joined a group of Western Michigan University students and faculty to stage the first significant downtown Kalamazoo celebrations of Earth Day in recent years. The student anti-Vietnam-war movement, “teach-ins,” and a massive oil spill in California inspired the first Earth Day celebrations, and put environmental protection on the national agenda. By the end of 1970, Earth Day mobilization led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. The same spirit of protecting the earth inspired organizers of the Kalamazoo Earth Day Festival. Members of the planning committee were alarmed about the rapidly increasing impacts and dangers of climate change and the urgent
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need for more public education and action. While the 2017 Kalamazoo Earth Day Festival focused on climate change and its theme was “Make a Promise to the Earth,” the 2018 Kalamazoo Earth Day Festival adopted the theme “Protect Our Water” in response to the water crisis in Flint and the danger of oil pipelines running under Lake Michigan. The 2018 Kalamazoo Earth Day Festival attracted some 4,000 individuals to Bronson Park and featured music and performance art, visual art, public speakers, electric car displays, youth activities, food trucks, and more than 70 booths staffed by local organizations, companies, and political campaigns concerned about the environment.“Everyone had a great time, and we all learned about what local organizations are doing to protect the earth,” said Earth Day committee member Hillary Rettig, of Vegan Kalamazoo.
Musical and Performance Art Musicians, storytellers and performance actors donated their time and talents to the festival. Second-grade students from Kalamazoo Public Schools’ bilingual El Sol Elementary School sang water-themed songs in English and Spanish. Orchestra Rouh, a classical music group composed of refugee children, performed at the Kalamazoo Public Library.