On April 19, the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County hosted its second annual Earth Day Festival on The Commons. The purpose of the event is to celebrate Earth Day while spreading awareness about sustainability practices, climate change and what the Ithaca community can do to care for the environment.
CCE is a nonprofit organization focused on providing educational programs for youth in New York State. It holds many services such as youth development programs, camps, the Strengthening Families and Primitive Pursuits programs, rural youth services and urban outreach programs.
There were many booths set up for the event, ranging from compost education to children’s entertainment and sustainability efforts in the Ithaca community. At the Sustainable Finger Lakes table, Emily La, communications and outreach coordinator for Sustainable Finger Lakes, said it is nice to see like-minded people at the event who care about the same efforts as them.
“I think they all just have that common goal … just wanting to have a better world,” La said.
Nicole Collins, tenant engagement coordinator for Sustainable Finger Lakes, said the event was an opportunity to celebrate the sustainability initiatives the group practices, including the Finger Lakes Climate Fund, which is a local carbon offsetting program.
“We ask individuals and businesses to offset their carbon footprint,” Collins said. “If you travel and go on a trip, you can offset your carbon footprint by donating to our Climate Fund, and we use that money to then help lower to moderate-income households get necessary clean energy upgrades.”
Collins said sustainability efforts within their organization are local and support community members in Tompkins County.
“The people who donate are local, the households are in the region and the workers are long-standing partners that we’ve worked with for years,” Collins said.
CCE was tabling at the event to promote their annual 4-H Duck Race and to educate the youth in the community. 4-H programs like the duck race are all part of CCE’s youth activities, which are offered to community members in an array of formats. 4-H is a youth organization that provides these programs to support children in their educational development.
4-H issue leader Vicki Fleming said their after-school programming is used as a way to teach Ithaca’s youth about the importance of fostering a passion for the environment at a young age.
“From the time they’re in preschool all the way up to high school, we’re providing that connection to nature,” Fleming said. “The importance of climate and nurturing the environment is all part of that curriculum.”
The Raging Grannies is an international group that is committed to standing up and speaking out, fighting for equality and justice. At the Earth Day Festival, members of the Raging Grannies of Tompkins County sang songs about the environment and state of the country.
Judy Hinderliter, member of the Raging Grannies of Tompkins County, said the lyrics in the songs communicate strong feelings about the current state of our country in regard to climate change.
“Ithaca is the place where I want to live, because it supports recycling, reusing and using our brains to bring all those things about,” Hinderliter said.
Story House Ithaca, founded in 2021, is a project of the Center for Transformative Action. It is a nonprofit arts organization with an emphasis on community. There were many different letters, ranging from being apologetic to being grateful. The community wrote letters praising the Earth for all it has to offer, emphasizing its beauty and apologizing for people’s mistreatment of it.
Celia Clarke, a member of the advisory board for Story House Ithaca, said the organization provides space for people to participate in workshops where they can have conversations and learn more about each other’s lives before applying that creatively.
“By sharing your own personal experiences and doing something with that, say playwriting or doing a presentation,” Clarke said. “It’s a way of building community by people actually coming together face to face and listening to each other.”
CCE compost educator Adam Michealides tabled at the Earth Day Festival to spread awareness about composting and urge the community to interact with the environment.
Michaelides works in the Compost Education Program, which aims to teach people about what compost is and how they can compost at their homes and businesses to avoid throwing things in the landfill.
“Landfilling is the last resort, and it’s much better to reduce the trash you create, reuse everything you can, recycle and compost,” Michaelides said. “We are trying to raise awareness and teach people how easy it can be.”
CCE member Holly Payne urged Ithaca community members to utilize electric vehicles and think of other ways to travel, like walking, biking or ridesharing to reduce carbon emissions.
29% of carbon emissions are produced through transportation, and Payne said it is important to rethink the way people move around and how that will affect the environment.
“Remember that we live on this earth, that we are only one species,” Payne said. “We think so much about ourselves and yet we are connected to all wild and tamed living beings, so celebrate the earth, bless us all.”
