FRIDAY
2024
Earth Day Festival.
It's the day we've all waited for! For Friday's Earth Week event, GCAP partnered with all the other branches of ASUCR to put together one of the largest and most anticipated Spring Quarter events of the year here at UCR: The Earth Day Festival! This event included 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 2024 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.
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 to act and builds enthusiasm for future Earth Week plans that we have in store.
- With love, the 2024 GCAP Team.
Event feed
BUILD A BOUQUET STATION.
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 never slowed 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.
Smoothie Bike Station.
The Smoothie Bike was another popular and beloved booth at the GCAP Earth Day Festival, with a long line of students eager to ride one for the first time! Students got to select from a wide variety of delicious fruit combinations, as well as milk and ice, to make a smoothie flavor of their choosing. After picking their choice of ingredients, all they had to do next was climb onto a smoothie bike provided by Wheely Good Smoothies and pedal the device to power the blender filled with fruits until it formed a drink! This activity booth helped demonstrate healthy eating in a fun way and provided cool and refreshing smoothies for students on a hot day.
Tote Bag Painting Station.
The Tote Bag Painting station was a fun, creative, and expressive booth at the GCAP Earth Day Festival that had a nonstop stream of students eager to paint their own GCAP tote bag! Students got to build their paint palettes by choosing and mixing unlimited colors from tubes of acrylic paint, then relax and unwind during the festival while having snacks and enjoying our scenic campus. Many made impressive and unique visions for each tote bag design and put much effort everyone put into their creations. These customized GCAP tote bags will help inspire students to use them as a sustainable alternative to plastic bags with better longevity and quality, while building a special emotional attachment to their art.
Free Vegan Food & Watermelon Eating Contest.
Delicious vegan food and a fun contest for students to participate! At this year's GCAP Earth Week Festival, our committee provided free vegan margherita pizza from University Pizza Co. (UPC), as well as free vegan crunch rolls and spicy tuna sushi from Jade's Vegan Sushi. After visiting and receiving stamps on their Earth Week Festival Passport from all 6 of our tabling organizations, students were able to enjoy their choice of vegan food!
Next up, GCAP hosted a collaborative event during the Earth Week Festival with UCR's Gardening Club: a watermelon eating contest! All students were invited to participate by eating a giant slice of watermelon as quickly as possible until all the red was completely gone from the rind! The first person to finish their slice won a watermelon plushie as the grand prize, courtesy of the UCR Gardening Club.
Recycled Paper Caricatures & Photo Booth Station.
Students loved this year's new activity booths, including a recycled paper caricature artist and a photo booth! The talented caricature artist used special recycled paper to create his portrait work because it requires less water and energy while reducing carbon emissions compared to non-recyclable paper. Each person received a uniquely personalized caricature drawing to keep as a souvenir from our 2024 GCAP Earth Week Festival event.
Additionally, a photo booth was set up for students to take pictures as keepsakes and cherishable mementos of the 2024 GCAP Earth Week Festival. The photo booth was able to accommodate groups of all sizes, and strips could be customized with limited edition GCAP stickers and backgrounds. Our GCAP committee also had the chance to take a team photo together after a hard day of working the festival!
Thrift Swap Station.
This year's Thrift Swap Station was run by GCAP's very own Marketing Director, Katie Wen, who runs her very own clothing alteration business, Alt.byk. At this activity booth, Katie offered to teach students sewing basics by providing a machine and other sewing tools. Learning clothes alteration helps extend the life and wear of old clothing, reduces the need to purchase new garments from fast fashion brands, and prevents garments from ending up in landfills. Students could also browse through and select from a line of clothes donated to previous GCAP Thrift Swap events without having to donate any articles themselves, so everyone could have the opportunity to refresh their wardrobe and make old clothing feel new again!
Pothos Propagation Station.
The Pothos Propagation Station is a returning activity booth from previous GCAP Earth Week Festivals that is beloved for being a fun experiment with science and nature! 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 will sprout roots directly from the stem and form 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 clippings from this activity booth were given away until the plants were ready to be regrown.
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