Community and Campus Join to Celebrate Earth Day

Earth day was established on April 22, 1970 to focus on ecological issues.
This year, University of Montana students and Missoula residents will be able to celebrate Earth Day twice, with campus events this Thursday and on Sunday with a huge party in Caras Park.
The dual celebration is the brain child of the Missoula Urban Demonstration Project(MUD) in conjunction with the University student group MontPIRG.
In previous years, Earth Day events were predominantly riverside and community cleanups or weed pulls, said MUD director Lou Ann Crowley. This year, MUD wanted a true celebration, albeit with an educational component.
MontPIRG organizer Bill Pfeiffer is excited by the collaboration.
“We wanted to have a concert on campus, but it wasn’t gonna happen,” said Pfeiffer, “so we decided to see what we could do to throw in to the celebration MUD was planning.”
The result will be a bigger bash than either group could have organized alone, Crowley said.
Although Earth Day is officially Sunday, the campus will celebrate on the Oval Thrusday, Pfeiffer said, because “we know from experience that turnout at weekend events on campus is always low, so we decided to do something on a day students were still here.”
One of Thursday’s events will be an eco-footprint race, in which participants complete a number of “Survivor-like” tasks based on the size of their ecological footprint. An ecological footprint is a determination of how much energy you use to maintain your personal lifestyle, Pfeiffer explained.
Thursday evening will feature an outdoor movie. Pfeiffer wasn’t sure what that film would be, only that it isn't “An Inconvenient Truth.” He said the group is trying to get a bicycle-powered generator to pop popcorn during the film.
Sunday’s day-long event runs from noon through 7 p.m. downtown in Caras Park.
Local musicians Amy Martin, Tom and the Tomatoes, Reverend Slanky and the Gravely Mountain Boys will provide entertainment via a solar-powered PA system.
Three Montana car dealerships will hold a “Green Car Show” featuring hybrid and electric vehicles and “Smart” micro-cars. (The Smart car was the tiny vehicle driven by Steve Martin in “The Pink Panther.”)
In addition, forty exhibitors will offer information and examples of sustainable living.
Local food, wine and beer vendors will be on hand to feed the need as it arises. And there’ll be plenty of free activities for the kids, including a Karelian Bear Dog demonstration (with a costumed “bear” attacking trash cans), a giant paper mache globe to paint and more.
A primary example of the “town and gown” crossover is a portable glass pulverizer being rented for the event by the student group, said Crowley.
Campus organizers will collect recyclable glass during UM Earth Day events Thursday, and on Sunday, crush the glass in the machine to create a landscaping mulch called cullet, that will be distributed to Caras Park event goers free of charge.
The pulverizer is housed in Helena, and is used by eight Montana counties to recycle glass, Crowley said. Students are renting it for about $1800, Pfeiffer added, and held fund raisers throughout the semester in anticipation of the event.
The theme of Sunday’s event is “Living Sustainable Solutions.”
“We want people to be able to take away simple lifestyle changes that will contribute to the sustainability of our community,” Crowley said.