Rosemary Chesney, arts and living editor
On Saturday April 15, the Eco Club is hosting their annual Eco Fair located in the Krannert Ballroom. The fair will include a variety of activities including local venders selling fresh produce, environmental activists sharing ideas and various games with prizes to win.
Some of the venders who have expressed interest in attending include: AgroBiodiversity Conservation Project (ABC), The Davies Shelter Garden, Berry College Outdoor Recreation, Rome-Floyd Recycling Center, BOLD and others. Sophomore Lillian Tierney is the project lead in the Eco Club for their Eco Fair Committee.
“All students are encouraged to come and enjoy the inviting atmosphere and to learn as much as they’d like from local environmental groups,” Tierney said.
According to senior Noah Guthrie, President of the Eco Club, the Fair has three main goals. The first is to connect various people with environmental interests from around the community. The second is to educate students on environmentalist issues and the third is to encourage more positive environmental actions.
“Environmentalists sometimes get painted negatively as being only focused on doom and gloom of our planet,” Guthrie said. “The Eco Fair is meant to be a hopeful event where we can see success stories of people working to fix environmental problems.”
The fair will offer multiple sources of entertainment for the students. According to Guthrie, there will be a bingo game going on where each table will have a name that will be included on bingo sheets. Students can go around and cross off the names of the tables after meeting and gathering information from each table. The Eco Fair will have some raffle prizes including a Hydroflask, a flower-shaped pillow, and a book “World of Wonders,” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Sophomore Mady Thompson has expressed interest in attending the Eco Fair because of her involvement with her Environmental Science class.
“I’m excited to see what different venders come out from the Rome area,” Thompson said. “It’s cool to be able to have an event to actually celebrate our environment and see what people are doing to help preserve it.”
In order to plan the event, the Eco Club first created different committees to distribute roles. Then, they contacted various vendors and communicated with them to decide who was able to be a part of the event. Guthrie said the main challenge with the fair has been communicating and hearing back from the different vendors; however, challenges have been minimal.
“Our committee members have been diligent about contacting vendors, spreading awareness of the Eco Fair,” Tierney said. “I’m most excited for the conversations and learning that will take place at the event. It’s great to see students eager to learn about the environment.”
The Eco Club’s goal is to unite the Berry community in pushing for a mutual thriving relationship with the environment and humanity. They meet currently five times a semester and act to educate others on environmental concerns. The Eco Fair will be the last event of the club for the year.
“I am looking forward to touching base with various leaders and activists throughout the area,” Guthrie said. “I am excited to be able to be inspired by their passion as it is one of the first Eco Fairs I will have been able to attend in a while.”