The first Earth day happened 44 years ago on April 22, 1970 with the message of environmental protection and peace. Sinclair Community College will continue this tradition with events scheduled to take place April 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., in Building 8.
“For the last two years, a group of students out of the leadership class have done some kind of activity on campus related to the environment and music,” Tom Roberts, adviser of Ohio Fellows and Student Government said. “I thought that was a great idea, so I thought this year … we would have an actual Earth Day event.”
The activities are focused on things involving mulching processes, recycling and sustainability.
“One of the things students wanted to know was what was growing on the roof of city hall,” Roberts said.
Manager of the City of Dayton Michelle Simmons will start the events at 10 a.m. answering that exact question, and Joe Giardullo will be talking about his mulching process from 11 to 11:30 a.m., according to Roberts.
“Sinclair has done a lot of different things … around the area of recycling and sustainability, [like] using the cooking oil for gas in our lawnmowers,” Roberts said. “Woody is going to talk about that.”
Woody Woodruff, director of facilities managemet, will give a presentation from 11:30 a.m. to noon.
Roberts also said Chris Rowlands a musician, educator and naturalist will be performing at noon.
“I always wanted to do something with music but along the line of the environment and music, so Chris Rowlands [will be performing] … his music is [focused] around environmental themes,” Roberts said. “He is going to get students excited about the environment from a different perspective — the medium of music.”
Roberts said after the performance, Sarah Hippensteel Hall and Theresa McGeady from the Miami Conservancy district will talk about the significance of the aquifer, starting at 1 p.m.
“We are over one of the greatest aquifers in the country so we want to help the students understand the importance of protecting that aquifer and what it means to us,” Roberts said.
Roberts also said he is going to have a conversation about how Sinclair can contribute and help the community, which will wrap up the Earth Day events and go from 2 to 3 p.m.
“There have been a number of students, faculty and staff who are interested in doing something similar to University of Dayton’s River Stewarts, in which students clean and monitor the water in their section,” Roberts said. “We are going to have this conversation about how we can put together a similar program [at Sinclair].”
Woodruff gave tips to students on how to keep the earth healthy in preparation for Earth Day, as well as how trash and recycling works at Sinclair.
“Sinclair’s campus … has two-sided containers — one side is for trash and the other is for recycling,” Woodruff said. “Its a single stream recycling, which means it can all go in one side, it must be clean, containers cannot have food on or in them.”
Woodruff said if the recycling plant finds something with food, grease or Styrofoam, they can reject an entire load of trash as a result.
Woodruff suggested students use the stairs instead of the elevator to cut down on electricity use on campus, and to make sure that lights are turned off when not in use.