Students Host Earth Day Festival in Coachella

April 28, 2015 /

 

Youth from the Environmental Youth Alliance hosted their third annual Earth Day Festival at the Esperanza Youth and Family Center in Coachella, Calif. on Saturday, April 25, 2015. The EYA youth helped festival goers create pinecone bird feeders. Photo: AMBER AMAYA/ Coachella Unincorporated

Youth from the Environmental Youth Alliance hosted their third annual Earth Day Festival at the Esperanza Youth and Family Center in Coachella, Calif. on Saturday, April 25, 2015. The EYA youth helped festival goers create pinecone bird feeders. Photo: AMBER AMAYA/ Coachella Unincorporated

KARLA MARTINEZ / Coachella Unincorporated

COACHELLA — Students from the Environmental Youth Alliance hosted their third annual Earth Day Festival at the Esperanza Youth and Family Center in Coachella on Saturday, April 25.

The EYA hosts the festival each year to help educate the community on environmental issues, like the “Three Rs of the Environment,” which stand for reduce, reuse and recycle.

Ten local agencies, like the Riverside County Department of Public Health, were asked to participate in this year’s festival. Each organization brought an activity that was related to recycling.

EYA students helped attendees create pinecone bird feeders and recyclable pots for growing beans, and the Land Use Planning Awareness project displayed their mobile art installation.

“During the Earth Day Festival, I get to watch our efforts get put into action,” said Miguel Arreola, an EYA member. “Watching all these people get informed and educating the young kids with our activities, makes it all worthwhile.”

 

Daisy Ramirez, a health education assistant for the County of Riverside Department of Public Health, invites EYA youth to add to LUPA's mobile art installation. Photo: AMBER AMAYA / Coachella Unincorporated

Daisy Ramirez, a health education assistant for the County of Riverside Department of Public Health, invites EYA youth to add to LUPA’s mobile art installation. Photo: AMBER AMAYA / Coachella Unincorporated

 

Students from the EYA have been planning the Earth Day Festival for months. It is an event entirely planned and organized by youth from the environmental group.

“The youth’s role is to organize and put into action the Earth Day festival. They are in charge of almost everything,” said Vivian Perez, director of the Esperanza Youth and Family Center. “It’s their festival; they get to work on it hands on.”

The EYA youth were eager to educate the community about environmental issues they discuss year-round. Each week, young people from the EYA meet and coordinate ways to make environmental changes in their community.

The youth from the EYA youth group have worked hard for the past three years to put the Earth Day Festival on because they hope to make an environmental difference in their community.

“We are all here, we have to live on this planet, and we all have to put in our effort and support the youth on their goal to make an environmental difference on planet earth,” said Perez.

 

 

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