It's Earth Day Every Day at the Collegiate School -- that's the campuswide theme -- but yesterday was the culmination of what they've been practicing since school began last fall.
More than 75 experts were at the western Henrico County school to share information on topics including organic farming, community gardening, earth-friendly transportation and alternative fuels. Collegiate's Earth Day celebration got Mother Nature's blessing, with sunny skies for the plethora of outdoor activities.
Today is the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day created by Sen. Gaylord Nelson, D-Wis., who planned an environmental "teach-in" and mobilized an estimated 20 million Americans on April 22, 1970.
Since this school year began, Collegiate faculty, staff and students have increased efforts to conserve on campus. They have been recycling more and eliminated Styrofoam containers from the lunchroom. Even the set from the school play was sliced up to make birdhouses after the show ended.
Collegiate's current crop of students grew up being green. "But it's great to see it all in action," senior Emily Kelley said.
The bright-blue BioTour Bus was parked out front. Students piled on to see the retrofitted school bus that runs on used cooking oil. One fueling, usually gleaned from Chinese restaurants, can power the bus for 1,000 miles, said Ethan Burke, one of its creators.
Six people currently are living on the bus, which features solar panels on the roof to power lights, cell phone chargers and computers. They've been to 46 states.
At lunchtime, students ate barbecue from locally raised animals and had fresh vegetables from local farms. The plastic cups, suspect at first, were made from recycled materials.
Students had the opportunity to attend a seminar on making moral choices about food and the implications that food selection has on the environment, other humans and animals.
Other seminars addressed ways to make a difference.
Mike Tidwell, executive director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, spoke on global warming, a topic most students were familiar with. "Earth Day needs to be about more than just going green," he said. "This is a nation of laws. If you want to make changes in a way that fights global warming, it's about ending laws in Virginia that favor mountaintop removal and embrace wind power and efficiency."
"We've been told all this before," ninth-grader Caroline Cheatham said. "But it's a good reminder."
Senior Michael Chilmaid was less idealistic than most students. "I'm not that into the whole green movement," he said. "It's trendy.
"I'm not going to save the world. But," he conceded, "there are some things we do can to help."
Contact Lisa Crutchfield at (804) 649-6362 or lcrutchfield@timesdispatch.com.
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