Earth Day Celebration

Come out and celebrate your love for our Earth! This year’s theme is “Native to this Place” and will incorporate live music, a sustainable fashion show, tree planting and much much more!

Check out the list below for all events and be sure to click on the GREEN BUTTON at the top right corner of the site to stay informed of all other environmental initiatives going on at FGCU!

• 9:00am- 9:15am- Opening Remarks by President Bradshaw
• 9:15am- 10:15am- Earth Flow Yoga w/ Megan D’Andrea
• 10:00am- 11:00- Tree Planting around Library Lake
• 10:30am- 11:15am- Earth First! Everglades: Political Activism Through Direct Action
• 11:30am- 12:15pm- Runway Earth: Sustainable Fashion Show w/ Free Local, Organic Lunch
• 12:30pm- 2:00pm- Living “Eagle Head” Mural w/ Daniel Dancer (Located on the Rec. Field next to the Gravel Lot)
• 2:00pm- 3:15pm- Climate Ground Zero: Florida and Mountain Top Removal
• 3:30pm- 4:00pm- Daniel Dancer Speaks
• 4:00pm- 6:00pm- Live Music: Reggae Rockers Chaefin and Common Ground

  Explanations of Events:

  • 1. President Bradshaw will open Earth Day and speak about FGCU’s commitment to environmental respect and integrity.
  • 2. Megan D’Andrea will lead a yoga session which emphasizes movements and connections with the Air and Earth.
  • 3. Earth First! Is a controversial environmental activist group which is committed to protection of the Earth “without compromise”. Some people call them eco-terrorist others call them moralists but, few have nothing to say. Local leaders of this organization will be talking about the history of their organization and what place direct action and civil disobedience has in environmental activism.
  • 4. Runway Earth is a runway-fashion show which is comprised of students modeling recycled/reclaimed clothes that have been refashioned into new outfits in our Environmental Art class. Free organic lunch will be provided from a near-by grower. All food will have been picked with-in the week, brought to our school, and then prepared fresh in our kitchens. There will be less a week from field to plate.
  • 5. Daniel Dancer is a world renowned environmental artist who coordinates large-scale “Living Murals”. The mural is “drawn” on a large, open space with organic materials such as soils, mulches, and sheets. Once Mr. Dancer has “drawn” the outline of the image, he has participants wearing colored shirts fill in the image and create the Living Mural. Daniel will be drawing a very, VERY large mural of an Eagle’s Head on our Recreational Field using natural mediums. He will then have students, children, and adults wearing black and white shirts filling in the “body” of the mural. He will video-document the entire experience and at the final culmination of the piece, he will float above the piece and take pictures from a hot-air balloon. The purpose of this performance-piece is to bring our community together in celebration of the Earth and to create art as a community. I would absolutely love for as many people as possible to attend as we need AT LEAST 400-500 people to make a quality piece, 800-1000+ would be an epic undertaking that all involved would remember for years to come. Every participant should bring a black AND a white shirt to fill in the mural.
  • 6. Climate Ground Zero is an organization based out of West Virginia which advocates for non-violet direct action to end mountain-top removal for the purpose of mining coal and other minerals. Wait! Why would an organization from West Virginia be coming to an event about being native to Florida?!? Did you know that Florida burns over 28 million tons of coal a year and is ranked 13th in national coal usage yet, there are no coal mines in Florida. Where does this coal come from? From other states and other countries. Find out the impact of Florida’s coal usage in neighboring communities and our responsibilities to those neighbors.
  • 7. Daniel Dancer will be speaking about his art, his philosophy on life, and how he got to where he is today.
  • 8. Local artists Chaefin and Common Ground will wrap up the day with some Reggae/Surf-coast tunes.