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Against a backdrop of Watauga High School art students parading in costumes representing recycling, Appalachian and the Community Together (ACT) kicked off their 18th annual Earth Week celebration with the Love Our Earth event Tuesday.
Various local businesses and organizations joined ACT on Sanford Mall to honor the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and to r aise student awareness about earth-friendly activities and habits.
Among those present were Green Mother Goods, Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, ASU Recycles, Appalachian Voices, Turtle Island Preserve and the Sustainable Energy Society.
Tim S. Hefflinger, sophomore sustainable development major, was this year’s student chair of Earth Week.
“We’re raising awareness, sure, but we wanted it to be something more than that,” Hefflinger said. “We really wanted to show the efficacy that small concerted groups really can have and we want to show that when a group of people gets together to make things happen, things will happen.”
Visitors of the event who picked up three items of trash or more were given a free tote bag and all were offered free food without plastic utensils or plates, thus reducing waste.
Jennifer B. Maxwell, resource communication manager of ASU Recycles said their main goal is managing recycling, composting and hazardous waste on campus.
The organization recently created the Recycle at the Rock program, where students and visitors are encouraged to recycle after football games and tailgating.
“In the last two years we have recycled more than 1,600 tons of material,” Maxwell said.
Part owner of Green Mother Goods, Debi J. Golembieski was also present at the event, promoting and informing students about organic cotton and other sustainable goods sold at her store on King Street.
Golembieski, an alumna of Appalachian State University and a previous member of ACT, said Green Mother Goods works to support fair trade and sweatshop-free products from around the world. She also contributed 20 percent of her proceeds to ACT.
Love Our Earth was more than simply raising awareness about the importance of sustainability, Hefflinger said.
“We’ve been trying to stress that every one of these vendors is something that a student can get involved with to some extent,” Hefflinger said. “These groups are here today because we know that they care about what they’re doing and we really want to show students that it’s possible to make a change even with limited resources.”
Story: DEEANNA HANEY, Lifestyles Reporter
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