Friday, April 17, the College of William and Mary’s Student Assembly and the Office of Sustainability hosted their annual Earth Day Bash on the Crim Dell Meadow. The interactive event featured a variety of activities students could participate in, as well as tabling by environmental student organizations.
“Earth Day Bash brings together all the different sustainability-related organizations on campus. In the past, this has included local community members such as WATA and the Virginia DEQ. This year, we invited RSOs to host their Earth Month initiatives at Earth Day Bash, to bring together the sustainability community on campus,” Student Assembly Secretary of Sustainability Aayla Kastning ’26 said in a message to The Flat Hat.
A popular event featured halfway through the bash was a lettuce-eating competition hosted by the Veggie Society, which nearly two dozen students participated in. The objective was simple: be the first student to eat an entire head of lettuce. Aside from crunching on leafy vegetables, students had the opportunity to churn butter, which attendee Payton LeCount ’27 took part in.
“I heavily enjoyed it. Apparently, in order to churn butter you need to pour heavy cream into a jar or container of sorts and then just shake it a lot,” LeCount said.
There were many other activities available to students during the afternoon.
“Student Assembly supported succulent planting and painting plant pots. We also distributed sustainable menstrual hygiene products at no cost to attendees,” Kastning said. “The Office of Sustainability spoke for the trees and brought the Lorax!”
A wide variety of clubs were present as well, including Entomology Club, Compost Club and Citizens Climate Lobby, all offering handouts about their individual environmental missions.
“Besides it being a chance for the William and Mary community to come together, most of the stands have informative information on all of them talking about different aspects of the environment, hence Earth Day,” LeCount said. “I think it serves as a way to educate the student body outside of the classroom.”
Bronwyn Warner ’28 represented the Tribe Adventure Program at the event and handed out flyers that detailed the seven principles of Leave No Trace, an educational program which explains how to care for the Earth by reducing impact on and damage to the environment during outdoor recreation. TAP provides students and employees of the College with the opportunity to go hiking, backpacking, camping and even skydiving, all with the goal of getting students connected to the environment.
“The Earth Day Bash is about appreciating the Earth that we live on. With TAP in general, we take people out to enjoy the Earth, but we want to do it in a respectful way,” Warner said. “We want to educate people on how to love it well when we’re enjoying its resources, including its natural beauty and activities and recreation.”
Branch Out Alternative Breaks Development Coordinator Eleni Orphanos ’27 tabled for her service-oriented club with an emphasis on social justice. The organization plans and hosts a variety of trips during school breaks with different community partners.
“Participants go on our trips, and they learn about that community partner. They learn about that community, they learn about the issues that community is facing and then they do direct service with that community in order to help them learn and grow,” Orphanos said. “There are also fun parts where people will go hiking, or they’ll go canoeing or kayaking.”
Many of the trips led by Branch Out Alternative Breaks embrace spending time in the natural environment.
“We have one in the fall to Pocahontas State Park that has to do with trail maintenance, so participants will spend a lot of time during the day outside, on the trails, helping with that. But also they have time to do hikes and to visit different locations within the park,” Orphanos said.
For Branch Out Development Coordinator Keertana Senthilkumar ’27, the Earth Day Bash provides a low-stakes way to get involved with conservation efforts on campus.
“To me, it’s about engaging in sustainability and thinking about the environment in a really fun way with all the activities that we have here: doing all of the competitions that people are a part of, coming over to different tables and hearing from different organizations and having it be a fun, less serious type of activity,” Senthilkumar said.
Students enjoyed the opportunity to find multiple sustainability efforts from around campus consolidated in one place.
“I feel like it’s cool to see all the different sustainable parts of campus and how they all come together,” attendee Anna Kasper ’27 said.
The event drew in dozens of students throughout the afternoon, filling the Crim Dell Meadow with laughter and community. Warner hopes that attendees of the Earth Day Bash came away with an appreciation for how easy it is to spend time in nature.
“You don’t have to be a pro, you don’t have to have any gear, you don’t even have to be that outdoorsy type. It’s our home, and it loves us when we love it,” Warner said. “I think everyone should just spend a little bit more time outdoors.”
