Local fair focuses on sustainability, green living

This year’s Living Lightly Fair focused on teaching Ball State students and Muncie community members how to live a green and sustainable lifestyle.

The annual fair, which took place today at Minnetrista, offered many vendors, speakers and arts and crafts.

A sustainable art show featured vendors from organizations targeted at doing their part to make sure Muncie stays green.

Ball State organizations also set up booths to share their views and tips for living green.

Ball State's Students for Responsible Consumerism was present to inform participants of a national event, Draw the Line.

The event is a campaign against the Keystone XL Pipeline, a proposed pipeline from Canada, where the oil reserves are located, to Houston, TX, where the oil refineries are located.

SRC members Kourtney Dillavou and Faye Lichtsinn let their guests “draw the line” on a large sheet of paper indicating what is important to them in their environment.

Habitat for Humanity also took part in the fair in part to inform the guests of their store in Muncie and the way in which they rebuild homes in an ecologically friendly way.

The organization also takes donations of left over materials that home owners used to remodel their homes and cleans and fixes them. Habitat for Humanity then sells those materials at lower prices to those who can’t afford them new.

The organization also takes these left over materials so they won’t end up in landfills.

Freshman architecture major Erik Anderson was one of the students to come and support the sustainable living cause.

“You never know what you’re going to find,” Anderson said. “Things are changing, so there’s going to be different booths everywhere.”

Anderson went with two other friends, also students, to walk around the art show and gaze at all the different products the organization booths had to offer, he said.

“We just wanted to come and check it out and see what it’s all about,” Anderson said.

Megan Clevenger, a freshman architecture major, also went out to support the event after her honors class mentor told her about the fair.

“I liked the different arts and crafts," she said. "This vendor showed me how to make a rug out of old clothing.”

Since the event isn’t on campus, the environment students are exposed is completely different than of an on-campus event, Clevenger said.

“It provides a homey environment,” she said. “You’re surrounded by the community outside the campus, and it also provides an opportunity to get off campus.”

Annette Rose, a grant writer and member of Living Lightly Fair, said she has been very pleased with the outcome of this event over the past seven years.

“I love my community,” Rose said. “I want to protect the soil, air and waters of our environment.”

The whole point of the Living Lightly Fair is to get the word out and make people think of the simple ways they can help their environment, Rose said.

“I hope that everyone that attends finds something that peaks their curiosity," Rose said. "Also, I hope they find a strategy to use in their homes and lifestyles that lightens their impact on the environment."

Rose also said the fair gets about 2400 people in attendance each year, which includes people in the Muncie community and Ball State students.

“I think the network of people that care about the environment has strengthened,” Rose said. “[The Living Lightly Fair] reminds faculty and students that they live within a broader community and they have a responsibility to protect the resources that enable us to thrive.”