by Elise Goitia '18

Knox celebrated Earth Month with activities, lectures, workshops, and more—including a nature scavenger hunt, repair fair, and alumni tree planting.

"Participating in Earth Month gets people one step closer to feeling empowered to make small changes that will improve the Earth," commented Director of Sustainability Initiatives Deb Steinberg.

Other events during the month included terrarium, granola, and tea making workshops, herb planting and making herbal remedies workshops, a trip to Green Oaks Biological Field Station, and a Share Shop fashion show.

An Earth Day Festival on April 21 included earth-inspired activities for kids and adults, from lawn games and music to smoothies made with pedal power by the Knox Bike Club.

"What I like about how Students for Sustainability (S4S) plan Earth Month is that they encourage other clubs to host events," added Steinberg. "It gets students working together to help the campus learn about being better stewards of the Earth."

Joining in the Earth Day festivities this year was the Alumni Council, a group of 31 alumni volunteers who were back on campus for their spring meeting. The group grabbed trash bags for a campus cleanup and planted an "Alumni Council" tree.

"Another beautiful tree has been added to the campus landscape," said Carol Brown, director of alumni programs. "The hope is that more members of the Knox community will know about this dedicated group of alumni volunteers and the work they do for their alma mater."

Another Earth Day event was a lecture from Treesong, the caped environmental activist and founder of the Illinois Initiative. Students, faculty, and members of the Galesburg community also participated in the 5K Fun Run and Walk, with proceeds going to Trees4Galesburg, a nonprofit organization that plants trees in Galesburg.

Ezra Schley ‘20, co-president of S4S, coordinated with other clubs to make the Earth Day Festival a success. For Schley, environmentalism is "intersectional."

"Earth Month gets students engaged in sustainable-minded activities, but the Earth Day Festival is a nice moment because it's a culmination of everything that's going on that month. We're all a part of it."

The Earth Month and Festival events were led by Students for Sustainability, with the collaboration of other student organizations, the Office of Sustainability, and the President's Council on Sustainability.