"Rock the Dell '08," Lynchburg College's Earth Day celebration, will feature a cleanup along College Lake, several bands, a rock wall, tree climbing, educational booths, a dumpster dive, volleyball, kickball, and ultimate Frisbee.
About a dozen student organizations planned the Earth Day celebration, which will be in the Dell from 3 to 9:30 p.m. April 22. The event is free and open to the public.
The Earth Day celebration is the culmination of a yearlong emphasis on environmental education and action at LC titled, "A Greener Tomorrow Today." Students have subtitled the event, "Using Clean Energy for the Earth while Energizing the Student Body."
Educational booths, local vendors, and craft booths are also part of Earth Day festivities on April 22. LC's Alliance for Energy Awareness will be selling buttons made of recycled bottle caps. Local vendors will be selling soap made from goat's milk, gems, candles, and fair trade chocolate.
A display about mountain-top removal for coal mining, an activism phone booth, a trash display, and recycling demonstration are among the educational booths planned. Crafts include designing your own reusable grocery bag and flower planting.
Service projects include trash cleanups in and around campus and College Lake and students will also get to climb trees and a rock wall, as well as participate in a number of games and yoga.
Music will be provided by the Women's Drum Circle at 4:30 p.m.; No No Nacho, an LC garage band at 7 p.m.; 110 Calories, an Amherst band at 8 p.m.; and Life's Only Lesson, a Newport News band, at 8:30 p.m.
Writer, naturalist, and activist Janisse Ray will also participate in the day's festivities. Ray will also give a public lecture, "How Clear-Cut Does It Have To Be?" at 7:30 p.m. April 21 in the Memorial Ballroom, Hall Campus Center, which is free and open to the public. Ray grew up in a junkyard along U.S. Highway 1 in rural Georgia and developed a passion for saving the longleaf pine ecosystem. Ray's Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (Milkweed Editions, 1999) was selected as LC's 2007-08 freshman common reading.
Also on April 22, more than 50 second-graders will be at LC's Claytor Nature Study Center in Bedford County for a morning of educational activities. Seven LC education students will have a chance to work with the second-graders and teach in a nature setting that is not available on campus. Sessions will include a science/prose language writing activity; a sensory poem station; a chance to wade in Big Otter River and catch macroinvertebrates; nature art; and a nature walk to see varying types of ecosystems.
For more information, contact Shannon Brennan at 434/544-8609.