April 22 is a day set aside to honor the earth.
The students of biology club and Martin Hall used last week to recognize Earth Day by reducing, reusing and recycling.
Last Wednesday, the women of Martin Hall planted flowers, tie-dyed shirts and had a cookout in honor of Earth Day. This event has become tradition for the girls of Martin and was put together by the Resident Assistants.
“Its always been one of the most attended events,” Jacqueline Robinson, Resident Assistant in Martin said. “It was good to see all of the girls out, planting flowers and celebrating Earth Day.”
Robinson also adds that she thinks the tie dying is always the best part of this program and the most well received.
Martin Hall tenants weren’t the only students celebrating Earth Day, however. Biology club also had an event on Earth Day to celebrate and promote recycling throughout the community.
“We’re trying to be a green club,” Elizabeth Young, secretary of biology club said. “We hope to increase those efforts and community awareness in the future.”
The biology club is currently looking to hold one to two community service projects a semester, and Young thought Earth Day was the perfect opportunity to hold an event on campus.
“I ran an ad in the Ottawa Herald to let the community know we were wanting to pick up household hazardous waste free of charge on April 17th,” she said. “We then took it to the Franklin County Recycling Center.”
Preventing toxic pollution was the key for this event. Young also thinks that there is too much pollution is our water system because of such pollution.
“Many people pour chemicals down the drain or outside instead of disposing them in a safe manner,” she said.
Lea Probst, treasurer of biology club thinks this event was a growing experience for some volunteers.
“I think they realized a lot of people litter,” she said. “I think it was great that we got the community to help as well. We had a lot of involvement there.”
15 residents gave the biology club a pick-up truck full of waste. They also picked up trash on the city baseball fields where they collected 6 13-gallon bags of trash and an additional 6 13-gallons of recycled materials.
“In the future, we will continue these types of projects,” Young said.