Above photo: St. Petersburg’s Fifth Annual Earth Day Festival filled WIlliams Park to the brim with ecological organizations and nature friendly vendors. Luke Cross | The Crow’s Nest
By Luke Cross
As a waterfront campus with a history of green initiatives, USF St. Petersburg doesn’t just celebrate Earth Day — it celebrates Earth Week.
Hosted by a handful of student organizations cooperating with Student Government’s department of sustainable initiatives, the week’s environmental festivities spanned four days, a far cry from the former Gaia Festival.
“Gaia Fest was the old Earth Day celebration with yoga, musicians and vendors from around St. Pete,” said Madeline Thorpe, president of the student environmental awareness society. “This year we tried to keep it more campus-based, involving the student community.”
Since 2016, USF St. Petersburg has opted to extend Earth Day celebrations for the entire school week and include organizations such as The Garden Club and Food Recovery Club.
This year, Earth Week celebrations were tailored to attract students from every major.
“We’re not just talking to the environmental science kids, but to the business students, the philosophy, the psychology, the history students,” said Thorpe.
The week began with an ‘alternative transportation’ theme Monday, offering an on-campus mechanic to tune students’ bicycles, followed by a group mural tour across the city.
The mechanic was free to any student and performed services including chain greasing, brake alignment and part installation.
“That’s his whole business model, on-location bike repair. Check out his yelp reviews — he’s no slouch, and it’s showed in his work with the students,” said Byron Baugh, SG sustainability coordinator.
Tuesday was marked by a planting event as well as a seed giveaway, where students gathered to breathe new life into the butterfly garden adjacent to Sixth Avenue.
Wednesday’s theme, “Protect Our Waterways,” featured two major events: a waterfront cleanup at Salt Creek, and the Missing Map-a-thon, hosted by Gamma Theta Upsilon, the international geographical honor society.
The Map-a-thon, which had students guessing the country to which a map section belongs, showcased the diversity and beauty of ecosystems across the world with vibrant imagery.
Salt Creek’s cleanup had students launch from the Haney Landing Sailing Center in kayaks to paddle their way toward the creek in the Old Southeast, where trash was pulled from the water’s banks.
“For SEAS, Earth Week is really about raising awareness for our little bay on campus, protecting our waterways, including Salt Creek,” said Ayden Marullier, beach clean up coordinator for SEAS.
Beyond cleaning waste from the water, Marullier also looks to educate students during cleanups.
“I like to quiz them on what the most commonly discarded item into our waterways is. 99 percent said it was plastic water bottles or straws, which is completely wrong,” said Marullier. “It is actually cigarette butts, which take just as long to decompose.”
Thursday, the final day of USF St. Petersburg’s Earth Week, was titled “Zero Waste Day” for its workshop that taught students the intricacies of recycling.
“Its a multi-step, sort of complicated process,” said Baugh. “For instance, plastic bags and straws can’t be recycled, but glass and food containers can be when properly washed out.”
After the campus finished its celebration, St. Petersburg began its own festivities Saturday with the fifth annual Earth Day Festival. The event was hosted by a number of local ecocentric organizations and featured a sea of vendors and musicians.
Many of USF St. Petersburg’s events, however, were hamstrung by organization and advertising issues.
“Perhaps there could’ve been some improvements with location advertising, putting things out sooner and making locations better known,” said Baugh. “I should’ve added ‘For specifics, follow us on social media,’ or something like that.”
Despite organizational hiccups, Baugh and fellow organizers hold that the events and their turnout hit the targets they intended to.
“Calling it a resounding success might not be super appropriate … but we helped some students, made an impact on the waterfront and fixed bikes,” Baugh said. “Moderate success is I guess what I’d say.”
In addition to more effective advertising, Baugh is looking to bring more professional voices into Earth Week events.
“Maybe have panels of experts, environmental scientists. Also, a student-led and moderated panel would be great for the students,” said Baugh.
Alongside possible panels, Marullier and SEAS hope for more community-led initiatives and solutions from within the campus.
“We find so many disposable, single-use plastics during our cleanups,” said Marullier. “One of the next steps is figuring out what to do with all this waste from the campus, instead of just dumping it.”
