THURSDAY
Earth Day Festival.
It's the day we all hoped for! For Thursday's Earth Week event, GCAP partnered with all the other branches of ASUCR to put together one of the largest and most anticipated Spring events of the year here at UCR: The Earth Day Festival! This event was an accumulation of fun activity booths, live entertainment, interactive games, healthy food, prize giveaways, and more to celebrate our environment and our ultimate initiative to raise awareness for sustainable movements and preserve Earth's natural resources for future generations. The Earth Day Festival had a record-breaking attendance of UCR students out of any other GCAP event. It marked an exciting future of growth and opportunity for us to continue making a more positive climate impact on campus and within the Riverside community.
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Our GCAP team was incredibly proud to have spent an entire year planning and organizing diverse events as a love letter to the planet. We hope that our past sustainable work inspires more students and builds enthusiasm for future Earth Week plans that we have in store.
Performers
For the Earth Day Festival, GCAP booked live musical entertainment from the following performers: El Segundo, Dear Donna, and Don Luxe. Each artist represented a unique genre of music and performed creative and passionate songs that brought liveliness to all those who watched and attended. Performing from sunlight to sunset, the talents of each artist brought an incredible ambiance that made Earth Day a truly unforgettable experience.
FREE FOOD
The most delicious part of the Earth Day Festival! GCAP catered organic vegan brown rice sushi from Jade's Vegan Sushi and vegan thin-crust cheese pizza from Love - An Amaro Pizzeria to offer free plates of their choice to all those who attended. Students loved the variety of food that they got to pick from - and both dishes were packed with incredible, healthy, and savory flavor combined with rich texture.
ACTIVITY BOOTHS
BUILD-YOUR-OWN BOUQUET.
Build-Your-Own-Bouquet was our most popular and beloved booth at the entire Earth Day Festival, with a line that stretched across the entire lawn and did not slow down once for hours! Students got to select from a wide variety of gorgeous, vibrant flowers and bundles of filler that were wrapped with recycled newspaper and a ribbon. Many had fun creating unique combinations of flora that reflected their personality, interests, and other distinct symbolism. Attendees continued to make and receive bouquets until all that was left were scraps of leaves and petals that were promptly composted, returning back to the Earth they came from.
SUSTAINABLE FASHION STATION.
The Sustainable Fashion Station was another popular and glamorous booth at the Earth Day Festival! Students had a blast browsing through a wide selection of chic clothing that had been donated to GCAP Thrift Swap events from the past year. They were able to choose garments of their personal liking, style new outfits, and strike their best poses in pictures with their new wardrobe. Attendees also received a free reusable tote bag with our signature GCAP logo! The purpose of giving away these clothes was to help promote the environmental consciousness of thrifting and repurposing second-hand clothing over fast fashion that creates landfills, raises ethical issues, and pollutes the Earth.
POTHOS PROPAGATION STATION.
The Pothos Propagation Station brought a unique experiment with science and nature to GCAP's Earth Day Festival! Students received leaf clippings from pothos plants with intact stems that were then placed into test tubes filled with water. When left in indirect sunlight, these plants require little to no maintenance besides an occasional water change. Eventually, the pothos clipping begins to sprout roots directly from the stem and forms a fully living pothos plant! Propagating a pothos helps rejuvenate plants that are growing a bit too big for their pot, and is a fun and easy way to gift plants to friends and family with beginner green thumbs! All leftover clippings from this booth were continuously given out during GCAP tabling until the plants were in perfect condition to be rehomed.
LETTUCE-EATING CONTEST.
The Lettuce Eating Contest made everyone bring their game on during GCAP's Earth Day Festival! Students who volunteered to participate were challenged to devour an entire head of red-leaf lettuce, provided to us for the event by the UCR Gardening Club, within a limited time frame. Eight daring people rose to the task, including some of our very own ASUCR Senators, but only one managed to successfully eat more of the lettuce head than the others! Attendees had a blast filming and cheering for their pick to win the contest, but everyone who enjoyed the booth walked away as a winner.
TOUCH POOL AQUARIUM.
The Touch Pool Aquarium was an unexpected aquatic and intriguing addition to GCAP's Earth Day Festival! This booth contained a shallow pool of water filled with tidepool ocean creatures like starfish, sea cucumbers, and nudibranchs. Students who visited learned interesting marine biology facts and knowledge about rocky intertidal habitats while getting the opportunity to pet tide pool creatures with their own hands! Our GCAP team took extra precautions to ensure that the animals and attendees stayed extra protected throughout the exhibition and those who preferred not to touch for themselves still had the option to interact, explore, and learn from non-living elements like preserved bone structures and dried vegetation.
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