Hector Sanchez Castaneda
Staff Writer
Photo by Leah Armer, Staff Photographer
Students and Isla Vista residents gathered at Anisq’Oyo Park on April 25 to celebrate IV Earth Day. University of California, Santa Barbara’s Environmental Affairs Board organized the event with the objective of bringing awareness about the environment to the community.
Second-year communication major Angelica Villalobos and third-year aquatic biology major Emma Moffitt coordinated with campus organizations, local bands, and vendors in order to bring them all together last Saturday.
“IV Earth Day is kind of like a festival,” Villalobos said. “It’s a day to come together and celebrate the Earth and to bring the community together and to celebrate with each other. “
The event was scheduled to begin at 1 PM, but due to unforeseen rain, it was pushed back a couple of hours. Once the sky cleared up, people began to show up.
Multiple environment-oriented campus organizations as well as local vendors tabled during the event. Organizations like Save the Mermaids, CALPIRG, and Fossil Free UC gave away flyers and invitations to join their groups.
“I think it’s really awesome that everyone in IV can come together to celebrate something that we always take for granted, which is our Earth,” third-year environmental studies and Save the Mermaids staff member Lauren Latour. “It’s so cool to see all the different booths and everyone seems really into it.”
Booths like the “make your own tie-dye shirt” and the free ice cream station were popular attractions. The bands playing at the amphitheater also drew large crowds, including Four Closure, Hidden in Fractals, The White Lightning Co., Erisy Watt, Andy Tsou, The Stay at Home Moms, Jason Matkin Music, and The Tearaways.
“It’s important to remember what we do to the environment,” said third-year environmental studies and geography double major Shirley Ng. “As college students it’s easy to see that we’re disconnected from the effects that we have because we don’t see the direct impacts. As a community I think it’s really important to remember to keep our community clean. That’s why we have Adopt-A-Block and things like that.”
Pre-law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta had a “make your own trail mix” booth at the event and offered different ingredients for a small price.
“I feel like events like this bring everybody together and makes you see a different perspective and learn from everybody,” said third-year English major and Vice-President of Phi Alpha Delta, Sergio Quintero. “It reminds you that the IV community isn’t just students but it’s family members. It’s local members and alumni.”
At the end of the day, Moffitt and Villalobos stated why they believe events such as this are important for the community of IV.
“I think events like IV Earth Day are necessary for our community because we need events that bring us together and really allow everyone to be included and feel welcome and just share our time,” Moffit said. “And also to heal after, specifically, the events of last year.”
“We also tried to include the families within IV and the children,” Villalobos said. “So we have a kids’ zone over there and we’ve seen kids painting on a mural. We feel like a lot of times some of the children and families of IV kind of get pushed out by the student presence, and I feel like they can be part of these events and we really worked hard to make sure that they were part of this.”