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Hey everyone! I have no idea if anyone will actually read this, but here it is.

Here at Western, we just finished up with our hectic, educational, and incredibly fun earth week which was wittingly dubbed "Earth Days" to support the idea that every day is Earth Day. Many months of planning preceeded the week. Speakers were booked, bands were paid, rooms were reserved, publicity was printed, and ideas flew around the Environmental Center like wildfire. VU 424 (our office) was a hotbed of craziness and enlightened minds trying to get the greater population involved in saving the planet!

The week was kicked off by several work parties on Saturday all throughout Western and Bellingham. Monday and Tuesday were full of movie showings such as "Addicted to Plastic", "Tapped", and "For the Love of Water". These were all a success and promoted dialogue about different environmental issues and their solutions.

Wednesday saw a Sustainable Cooking Class headed by Heather Jeffreys, the head of Students for Sustainable Food, and an intern here in the office. I didn't get a chance to attend, but I heard that it was wonderful and everyone loved it (there was food; who wouldn't love it!?). There will be future sustainable cooking classes so look out for those!

Thursday, April 22nd, the official Earth Day, consisted of many booths and a small celebration in Red Square under the shining sun. In between classes, people stopped by and made buttons to support creativity over consumption and heard about all the exciting events going on.

An unexpected group of people came by around 1:00pm and starting protesting Earth Day. They carried signs stating "I hate Earth Day" and "Profits over People". Needless to say, they got many strange words and uncomfortable stares from the environmentally friendly people of WWU. However, it turned out to all be a stunt to promote the presence of the Yes Men on campus. The Yes Men are a couple of guys who impersonate public officials and do satirical protests and forums making fun of the way that politicians handle our environment. Watch their hilarious youtube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZuyiAFTtb8.

The quarterly Environmental Club Summit was also on Thursday. At 7:00, 25 pizza boxes arrived in the MPR and a group of about 50 Western students devoured them while dialoguing about how to get involved in environmental clubs and how to best collaborate events. The energy of this specific group of students was infectious and as they walked out after the meeting, the general public could tell they had just been planning to save the world.

The "Yes Men: Fix the World" video was shown on Friday at 7 and 9 and got a fair amount of attendance. Many laughs ensued while people passed bags of popcorn around.

The big news came on Saturday when all the environmental clubs on campus and different vendors from Bellingham and the surrounding area came together for the annual Earth Day Festival! The event had to be moved to the VU MPR because of rain, but it worked out well because there was still enough room and it was nearer to the middle of campus. Lots of people came and did crafts, got seedlings for their rooms, watched tribal dances, and ate yummy, organic food.

All in all, Earth Days was a great success!!! Look forward to next year's week and get involved!

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Comment by Kate Clark on May 22, 2010 at 11:04am
Sounds amazing! I helped with WWU Earth Day promotions in 1989...I did the poster and other graphics. I am glad to see it is still going strong.
Comment by Heather K on April 30, 2010 at 2:34pm
Great news! We're listening Amy!
Word on the street was it was a great day, and more great earthdaysevery day to come!
Comment by Rob Olason on April 30, 2010 at 1:21pm
Thanks for the post, Amy! I like the expansion of Earth Day to "Days." It is a great step from a symbolic one-day focus, to a functional everyday focus. Can you estimate how many people participated in the events?

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