Loyola kicked off Earth Week celebrations on Tuesday with live music and science at the greenhouse atop Monroe Hall.
The “Greenhouse Party” was the first event planned for the week leading up to Earth Day on Saturday.
Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970. Spurred by United States politician Gaylord Nelson, the holiday led to the rise of an environmental activism movement.
Anthony Rizzi, event organizer and environmental studies sophomore, hopes that events like the greenhouse party will bring attention to Loyola’s facilities dedicated to scientific research and environmental awareness.
“This event is an introduction event. It’s to get students to really see what we have up here at the greenhouse. It’s a facility that we put a lot of money into and a lot of time and a lot of effort. Students do research up here, professors do research up here, but not a lot of the rest of the student body knows that. This is an event to really get this place and what we do up here out to the rest of the Loyola community,” Rizzi said.
Student artists Tristin and Jana Sanders performed live for the event, followed up by DJ Derek Taylor. The local musicians, New Orleans sunset and physics experiments attracted students to the rooftop for the event. Andrew Eddins, physics senior, organized the physics display.
“So we went and we performed some demonstrations on topics like angular momentum, adiabatic compression, forces and electric fields,” Eddins said. “I thought it was great, and we brought telescopes too. So we saw Saturn and we saw all the four Galilean moves.”
The greenhouse party is just the kick off for the week long celebration leading up to Earth Day on Saturday, April 22. On Wednesday, the Holly Grove Farmer’s Market came to the Peace Quad, followed by an appearance by state lawmaker Foster Campbell.
“He’s going to speak about how students can be more involved in politics, mostly about the environmental aspects of it,” Rizzi said.
Environmental studies seniors presented their year-long capstone projects on the third floor of Monroe Hall at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday. Later that evening at 6 p.m., Josh Fox’s “How to Let Go of the World” was screened in the Whitney Room in Thomas Hall.
Rizzi said that the biggest event will take place on Friday from 2-6 p.m. in the Peace Quad.
“We’re going to have Bagel Boy and his new bagels, a sand pit, arts and crafts, yoga, open mic and a bunch of organizations are going to come out and talk about the environment,” Rizzi said.
