” The University of Akron will be celebrating Earth Day on Thursday, April 16 with a variety of interactive exhibits and other activities for the third year in a row. This year’s theme is Roocycle and will focus on the importance of recycling. Do It Now for the Envirooment was last year’s theme and was meant to instill a sense of urgency into students, faculty and staff.”
“
The University of Akron will be celebrating Earth Day on Thursday, April 16 with a variety of interactive exhibits and other activities for the third year in a row.
This year’s theme is Roocycle and will focus on the importance of recycling.
Do It Now for the Envirooment was last year’s theme and was meant to instill a sense of urgency into students, faculty and staff.
The event will be held outside of the Student Union from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
There will be a ‘Tour de Roo’ bike ride around campus from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Students participating in the bike ride will meet at the Recreation Center at 9:30 a.m.
‘Tour de Roo’ participants will have a chance to win a Jamis bicycle.
There will be 20 exhibitors at the event. These include Habitat for Humanity, Akron Metro RTA, Green Energy Ohio and the University Park Bicycle Shop.
There will be a wind-powered stage outside that will feature two different artists. There will also be other people performing inside on the Starbucks stage. PR Miller, a local artist, will take the stage at 11:30 a.m.
There will also be a BMX stunt team demonstration at 11 a.m.
To encourage people to plant trees, there will be an opportunity to win Eastern White Pine and Burr Oak tree seedlings.
Donny Davis, an Earth Day Committee member, is especially looking forward to the ‘Think Outside the Bottle’ challenge.
Recycling is great, but conservation is better, he explained.
Participants will sample three cups of water. Each cup will hold either bottled, tap or filtered water.
The participants then guess which cup is holding what kind of water. They also decide which one they like the best.
Davis hopes that this challenge will give people a chance to understand how little of a taste difference there is in bottled water compared to tap and filtered.
Whether the participants guess correctly or incorrectly, they will be eligible to enter a raffle to win one of 45 stainless steel water bottles if they pledge not to buy bottled water.
‘Think Outside the Bottle’ will be hosted by Environmental Akron and the Graduate Student Government.
Davis explained that bottled water is detrimental to the environment and points out that at least 25 percent of bottled water comes from other municipal tap sources.
It is an interactive program with the potential for behavior changes or a paradigm shift, Davis said.
The entire event will be hosted by the University of Akron’s Blue, Gold and Green Committee and Environmental Akron.
The Blue, Gold and Green Committee was established in 2006. Besides hosting the University of Akron’s Earth Day events, the committee has taken many steps to conserve energy on campus over the last two years.
Environmental Akron is a student organization that was started in 2007. It has partnered with many organizations off campus, such as Keep Akron Beautiful and Green Energy Ohio.
Davis is hoping that students will learn more about their environment and what they can do to keep it safe as a result of attending.
Don’t let school get in the way of your education, he said.
“