GreeND, in collaboration with several other campus and community groups centered around sustainable development, will host a Sustainability Festival on Friday featuring several activities and products in support of environmentalism and sustainability.
“We’ve started thinking about this since our last festival in early October,” Abigail Veres, GreeND director of communcations, said in an email. “Over the past few months, Tessa [Clarizio, president of GreeND], the other leaders and I have spent nights abuzz with ideas to make this the best fair to date and we keep coming up with awesome ideas. I credit that to the amazingly thoughtful members of the club, who always think about ways to make Notre Dame a better place [by] thinking of others before themselves. We are so excited about the fest that we can barely think about anything else.”
According to GreeND president Tessa Clarizio, the inaugural sustainability festival was held on campus last semester as part of an effort to take part of a national day dedicated to climate change called Know Tomorrow. The club hopes to hold a festival on campus once every semester.
“When we first heard about Know Tomorrow, we had no idea what kind of event we wanted to put on, or even what Know Tomorrow was all about,” Veres said. “But we figured it out. It was a pretty big trial and error process, but it was so crazy successful — we bought materials for over 100 crafts and were out in the first 15 minutes – that we knew we had to do this again.”
According to Clarizio and Veres, this year’s festival will include a farmer’s market, opportunities for students to get more involved in environmental advocacy and environmentally-themed crafts and games, including face painting, potting plants, handprint tree art, a Grab-n-Go giveaway, collages, chalk, bubbles, a photo booth, a scavenger hunt, an acoustic concert and food, clothing and jewelry vendors.
“I hope it will inspire participants to incorporate sustainable choices in their everyday life,” Clarizio said.
According to Veres, the festival is the result of the efforts of not only GreeND, but also several other clubs and community members, including the Sierra Club, ND Energy, Fossil Free ND, VegND, the Office of Sustainability, and the several vendors and performers who will be at the festival.
“What we hope arises from this event is our sense of community, education and commitment to the earth and its inhabitants,” Veres said, “We are a network of passion, and we truly want everyone to feel that same love for the environment that we feel.”
GreeND member Grace McNamee said the goal of the festival is to unite a variety of clubs on campus and bring local farmer's markets together to celebrate Earth Day.
“We want people to get involved in these clubs and be proactive on making this campus more sustainable,” McNamee said.
“All are welcome,” Veres said. “It’s family-friendly, stay for a minute or the full two hours, and you don’t have to be a hippie to come. It’s open to every single person.”
