Students and San José residents gathered on the Tower Lawn to enjoy and celebrate an all-ages Earth Day event at San José State on Friday.
The event hosted informational vendors, live performances and activities for attendees to celebrate Earth Day.
Students associated with the Environmental Resource Center (ERC) and the School of Planning, Policy and Environmental Studies helped plan the event.
Kaili Mallari, a fourth-year environmental studies student, is an ERC director and helped promote the event.
Mallari said the event saw about 400 visitors.
“I’m really glad that this event was open to not just SJSU students, but it was open to the literal SJ community,” Mallari said.
SJSU’s connection to Earth Day goes beyond normal tradition and celebration as the creator of Earth Day, Gaylord Nelson, was an SJSU alumnus.
Nelson graduated from San José State in 1939 and became a U.S. senator in 1962 in which he promoted environmental protections and conservation efforts alongside President John F. Kennedy, according to a Wilderness webpage.
Earth Day was officially founded on April 22, 1970, according to the same source.
Vendors provided resources for attendees on environmentalism and businesses with sustainable practices.
“The Earth Day event is a great way for students to get in touch with everything that’s going on, because they can also connect with local environmental organizations,” Mallari said.
Shade Rayz, an organic sunscreen company, was one of 40 booths that were available for attendees to try out the company’s environmentally safe sunscreen.
Kristan Kelly, the CEO of Shade Rayz and an SJSU alumna, said she started the brand because she had breast cancer and enjoyed healing outdoors.
Kelly said she enjoys the connection to SJSU.
“It means everything to me,” Kelly said. “I have a woman-owned business, all the people who work for me are from San José State.”
Kelly said offering opportunities is important to her.
“I wanted to give back to my community that gave so much to me,” Kelly said.
Vendors such as the Green Party, Zero Waste Silicon Valley and Saved By Nature had booths that were frequented by students.
The Spartan Stellas performed on stage, followed by a fashion show where students showed off outfits under the theme of subcultures.
Naomi Foss-Alfke, a third-year communication studies student at SJSU, said she enjoyed the event and learning about the variety of organizations available for students.
“I really liked the variety, and I liked that it was all available here,” Foss-Alfke said.
Foss-Alfke said that she hopes attendees who visited the event were able to learn how to improve the planet.
“It was very heartening to see all these different people and organizations who are really working very hard to try to keep our lands good and restore them,” Foss-Alfke said.
