Ball State University faculty and staff plan to make a lot of noise as they gather to celebrate Earth Day.
The Natural Resources Club will have its annual celebration of the Earth and environment Wednesday with Earth Day 2009: Making Noise.
Stephanie Weyer, president of the Natural Resources Club, said in past years, Ball State had a week-long Earth Day celebration, but low attendance and a cut in funds has forced the celebration to be done in one day. She said the festival will have a few other changes.
"We've changed it in that we no longer have a huge speaker coming because it's too expensive, and everybody's hard up right now," Weyer said. "So we have no major speaker, but we're trying to get more student groups and professors on campus to talk about their issues related to the environment."
The event is 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday. Vendors talking about recycling, organic and locally grown food, sustainable design, water and energy issues and global warming will set up tents and tables on University Green. The Blue Bottle Coffee Shop, Muncie's Downtown Farm Stand and the Ball State Truth Movement will also participate in the festival. It also will have food, music, games, a disc golf tournament and a sustainable clothing exchange.
"We're hoping to promote people re-using stuff and changing their clothing with other people's clothing or paying really nominal fees for it so it just doesn't go to a garbage bin," Weyer said.
Although the Earth Day Festival is to celebrate the Earth, the group is hoping more community activism comes from the event.
"We are really wanting to make this more inclusive, not just students in biology, natural resources, landscape architecture, but students of all majors, however they celebrate being alive, being on the earth," Amy Gregg, faculty adviser for the Natural Resources Club, said.
Gregg said the Muncie community is welcome to go the event and learn about buying local food and shopping with local merchants.
The Natural Resources Club is an advocate organization that works to inform others about environmental issues and natural resources.
"Traditionally, the Natural Resources Club has always supported educating people about natural resources, how to use them, how we abuse them and how you can solve problems," Weyer said.
The idea of Earth Day was developed by Gaylord Nelson, a senator from Wisconsin. Nelson's goal was to bring people together once a year to celebrate the Earth and the efforts of making it better. The first Earth Day celebration was in 1970.
"Lots of issues that were hot at the time were things like nuclear power, Vietnam, environmental problems. In the 1960s and 70s there were concerns about environmental quality and pollution," Gregg said.
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