The Environmental and Gardening Club invites students and community members to their Earth Day Celebration on Friday, April 22 from 11-2 pm inside the Robert A. Lee Community Recreation Center for free educational environmental activities for all ages, live music from ICCSD students, and local food. There will be food from Valerie’s French Cooking and snacks from New Pioneer Food Co-op. The City High Jazz Ensemble, Liberty High Free Strings Ensemble, and student group “The Guys”, among others, will perform. 

“There’s going to be music. There’s going to be activities. There’s going to be University of Iowa students there. There’s going to be students from all the high schools and we’re getting a lot of local organizations to come. There have been donations from so many great local businesses,” Beatrice Kaskie ‘22, an event organizer, said.

The Earth Day Celebration event was initially part of a Liberty High’s Student for Environmental Action (SEA) Club project. Beatrice Kaskie, a co-founder of SEA, explains that community members could order native Midwest tree saplings up until March 22. Individuals had the option of either donating them to the North Liberty Park System or choosing to plant them in their own yards. Kaskie reports that SEA Club wanted to restore the populations of trees lost during the derecho storm of 2021. The Earth Day Celebration event was initially organized as the sampling pick-up site for this Tree-Plenish project before Kaskie’s club reached out to other student environmental groups about a larger community event. 

Environmental student groups from City High School, West High School, and Liberty High School joined together in collaboration to arrange activities that promote environmental stewardship. The student groups want to directly target the issues that most affect the student body. For instance, their collective interests include curbing student food waste through composting, addressing unsustainable student transportation, and creating future climate action leaders throughout their community. Furthermore, the event will have screen prints for attendees, which City High’s Drip Club has helped to arrange through a used t-shi

rt drive. 

“Activity booths will feature diverse student groups and local organizations that promote environmental stewardship and sustainability for all ages,” Kaskie said. “Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to bring an old t-shirt to get a free Earth Day screenprint on, lighter colors and space on the front are preferred. We really just encourage everyone, come on out”

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