Earth Week activities will be taking place the week of April 21 at SUNY Fredonia.
An Earth Day Expo and Farmer's Market is slated for Tuesday, April 22, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m., in the Williams Center Multipurpose Room. The event is free and the campus and community are invited to attend.
There will be 32 booths including video and poster environmental presentations, crafts, sustainability tips, crafts, and volunteer opportunities.
Included at the expo will be:
- student semester-project presentations and SUNY Fredonia departments/programs including Communication, English, Physics, Visual Arts, Environmental Studies. In addition, the Student Health Center will present, “Fighting Climate Change with Diet Change.” Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP) groups from area middle and high schools including Fredonia, North Collins, Salamanca, Gowanda and Westfield will also be participating. Topics for presentations focus on a wide range of environmental and sustainability related concerns including household product life-cycle analyses, the science of energy generation, earth soundscapes and imagined utopias, and climate change.
- students/student groups including the Transfer Student Organization, Art Forum, Fred Grows, Student Sustainability Committee, Delta Phi Epsilon (sorority), Enactus, and an Environmental Science presentation on the science of bats by Rachel Echevarria. Activities will include upcycling through turning t-shirts into no-sew, reusable tote bags; packaging milkweed seeds to take home and throw-to grow, crocheting with plastic bags and rock painting.
- local conservation groups will offer educational videos, posters and brochures. Participants include Greystone Nature Preserve, the Audubon Community Nature Center in Jamestown, the Western New York Land Conservancy, the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy, the Chautauqua County Soil and Water Conservation District and the Nature Sanctuary Society of Western New York.
- vendors from the Fredonia Farmer's Market including Royal Fern Nursery, Roo Haven Farm, Miller Apples, Dandelions and Dreams, Free Thinkers Gourmet and Soapy Aries, Maggitti Farm and Sunset Sky Farm. They will be offering fresh produce, meats, baked goods, skin care products, honey and maple syrup, and native plants.
In addition, an Earth Day Native Planting Event is scheduled for the same day at 2 p.m. Participants are asked to meet at the Science Center Greenhouse, where a wide variety of native pollinator and other perennials will be planted in the low- and no-mow zones areas near the campus garden and greenhouse to increase the beauty, biodiversity, and soil health of these designated areas. Those planning to help are asked to please bring gloves and garden trowels if possible, and dress appropriately for the weather and planting activity. The event is being organized by Dr. Christina Jarvis of the Department of English.
An Invasive Species Pull is slated for Thursday, April 24 at 2 p.m. Those wishing to participate should meet at the Lake Shore Savings Clock Tower in front of Maytum Hall. With careful instructions and supervision from faculty, volunteers will pull invasive species within and around the campus woodlot. Those planning to help with the effort are asked to please bring gloves if they have them and dress appropriately for the weather and weeding event. Volunteers are welcome and no advance registration is required. The event has been organized by Dr. Jarvis.
If campus students or employees have additional events they are organizing for Earth Day, they can include them in the campus electronic EVENTS calendar and select "Earth Month" as an event type to have their activity included on the Earth Day website.
Dr. Tracy Marafiote, who is serving as Earth Day Expo coordinator, noted that 2025 is the 55th anniversary of the first 1970 Earth Day. She cites the famed British explorer-turned-environmentalist, Robert Swan, who stated “the greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” Dr. Marafiote adds, “Earth Day is the perfect opportunity to be reminded of the amazing beauty and diversity that we have in Western New York, and to learn about ways that our actions and choices can keep it that way.” Assisting Dr. Marafiote with the expo arrangements is intern Lindsay Hocking, a Communication department major.
The week’s events are sponsored by the Department of Environmental Health, Safety and Sustainability.
