Indiana State University Newsroom

Indiana State University will celebrate Earth Day with activities that encourage students and the community to embrace sustainability, recycling and energy saving.

Earth Day festivities will kick off at 7 p.m. Monday, April 18 in Dede I with Marty Essen presenting "Around the World in 90 Minutes," a high-energy, digital slide show and presentation full of laughs, surprises, and interesting facts. His presentation is being sponsored by Hulman Memorial Student Union, Union Board and Student Government Association.

In 2001, while being interviewed for a story in Montana, Essen mentioned to the reporter that he was heading to the Amazon rainforest. The reporter invited him to write a story about his adventures.

His story ran in two Montana newspapers. The Amazon story, and a second story about a trip to Australia, were so well received that he decided to expand his travels to all seven continents. Essen chronicled his unique adventures in his first book, "Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents."

Another Earth Day presentation will follow on Tuesday in conjunction with the Biology Seminar Series. Rick Douglass, professor of biology at Montana Tech, and his wife, Kriss, will present "Reclaiming strip mines via plant remediation" at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 19 in Science 012.

Both presentations are free and open to the public.

Many Earth Day activities will take place Thursday, April 21 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The celebration kicks off at 10 a.m. with ISU President Dan Bradley and Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett turning on the fountain and talking about sustainability. Indiana State will be presented its third Tree Campus USA award and the Governor's Award for the Recycling Center's EScrap collection program.

Winners of Indiana's State's Recyclemania and Energy Conservation competition will be announced during the opening ceremony.

There will be food, entertainment, giveaways and dozens of displays, booths and activities for all ages, including environmentally friendly products and vehicles, community organizations, corn hole, e-scrap putt-putt, ring toss, t-shirt decorating and an informational scavenger hunt from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This year we have added entertainment as part of the program. ISU student Tevin Studdard, cousin of the American Idol winner Ruben Studdard, will perform an Earth Day rap at 10 a.m. Brent McPike and Sully Burton will perform acoustic music from 10:45 - 11:30 a.m., funded by the Lily Endowment.

Campus groups will be collecting old cell phones, eyeglasses, books and empty printer ink cartridges to recycle. In addition to giving away 400 tree seedlings, there will be a plant exchange, where participants can bring in a plant ready to transplant and exchange it for another variety.

Five academic classes will have displays related to the day's events inside Hulman Memorial Student Union. Students in Introduction to Environmental Science will have a video display while students enrolled in Jim Speer's Conservation and Sustainability class will showcase their research in a poster display. Also participating are applied health sciences, earth and environmental systems and technology and international development.

Indiana State's Nonprofit Leadership Alliance will sponsor a Goodwill Dump N' Run Drive from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Fifth and Chestnut streets, between Pickerl Hall and the pay lot. ISU faculty, staff, emeriti and students are encouraged to donate unused clothing or household items in good condition.

Indiana State celebrates Earth Day to promote conservation of resources, innovation of green initiatives, recycling across campus, and environmental responsibility through a collaborative effort between campus and community.

For details on the University's Earth Day events, contact Judy Conner or Anita Gabbard, Hulman Memorial Student Union, at 812-237-3818 or go to http://www.indstate.edu/earthday/  .


Contacts: Judy Conner or Anita Gabbard, Hulman Memorial Student Union, at 812-237-3818
Writer: Paula Meyer, ISU Communications and Marketing, 812-237-3783 or paula.meyer@indstate.edu