KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Earth Day is approaching quickly on Wednesday, April 22, but the City of Kalamazoo has already begun celebrating with Kalamazoo Earth Week.
This year will mark the 50 year anniversary of the first Earth Day. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, all in-person events planned for the week will not be taking place.
A roster of different events including online forums like the “Youth Climate Solidarity Discussion” will be held through the video conference platform Zoom instead of in-person gatherings. Numerous online videos are also being posted through partnering organizations on social media during Earth Week.
Past activities to mark Earth Day in Kalamazoo include projects held by the Kalamazoo Nature Center, a day-long festival at Bronson Park, and other eco-minded festivities to educate and engage residents.
“This was not a social distancing-appropriate event, and so we had to postpone it,” Allen Webb of Western Michigan University said of the Bronson Park event. “Meanwhile, we’ve come up with a lot of really great things we’re doing that are online and appropriate to socially distance.”
The official Kalamazoo Earth Day website will be the place to go online to find all appropriate Earth Day activities amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. The Virtual Event page is recommended as best place to start.
“On this virtual event page, there’s so many different activities, not just on Wednesday, but all week long and even some throughout April,” Webb said. “It includes talks about the history of Earth Day that you can listen to, the climate crisis, the Green New deal, reducing our use of plastic…[and] many others.”
Other activities include a coloring book about the history of Earth Day, as well as Earth Day-appropriate recipes that can be made at home during the COVID-19 outbreak.
“We’re trying to bring Earth Day to people through their children and through their computers, and we really welcome them to celebrate the importance of addressing Earth Day right now during this COVID crisis,” Webb said. “I think there’s some powerful links here; the COVID crisis is worldwide, we have to realize that all of us are in this together.”
More information about Kalamazoo Earth Week can be found at https://www.kalamazooearthday.com/.
