Thousands of Baton Rouge residents flocked downtown to attend Baton Rouge’s 21st annual Louisiana Earth Day celebration Sunday in honor of Earth Week, which began Friday. The event spanned most of the downtown area, starting at the river end of North Boulevard and continuing onto the Old State Capitol Grounds. Earth Day, celebrated on April 22, was created 40 years ago by Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, and is celebrated in 190 countries in an effort to raise awareness for the Earth’s environment. The celebration included multiple food vendors and local catering, environmental demonstrations, educational activities and live music from local bands such as the Bucktown Allstars and Wayne Toups & Zydecajun. “This has become one of the largest festivals in the country focused on our state’s love of the natural beauty of Louisiana and need to preserve and conserve our environment for future generations,” East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Kip Holden said at the festival. This year’s theme was “We live in the house we ALL build,” but there was a strong focus on Louisiana. “Louisiana loses wetlands the size of a football field every 38 minutes,” said Tiffany Swiderski, member of America’s Wetland Conservation Corps, a division of the LSU AgCenter. Corps members helped children decorate brown grocery bags with Earth Day themes to later be donated to Southside Produce Co. “We are promoting Earth Day and educating the consumers,” said Sien Gaines, Corps member. “It’s great to start with the kids, who will then educate the adults.” Representatives from the LSU School of the Coast and Environment also promoted the wetlands. “Earth Day is a great way to get people excited about the wetlands,” said Lauren Land, coast and environment graduate student. “The wetlands are shrinking at an alarming rate, and we want people to be aware of that.” Structure-Green, a solar power company, demonstrated the use of solar energy to power a children’s racetrack toy. “Our goal is to get consumers off utilities as much as possible,” said Omeed Badkoobeh, design and development manager of Structure-Green. “When you install a solar system, it’s like building a power plant on top of your own house.”The company auctioned off a solar-powered backpack, which had three solar panels on the outside and contained an array of adaptors that could power most devices, including iPods, cell phones and laptops. “We are going to end up hurting future generations if we don’t become more green today,” said Laura Badkoobeh, elementary education senior. The University’s Environmental Conservation Organization was also in attendance. “We are raising awareness to encourage people to become more energy efficient,” said Jenny Byrd, wildlife ecology sophomore. Matt Wyatt, natural resources conservation sophomore, said he wanted to let people know University students are actively involved in community conservation. The University’s Association for the Education of Young Children set up a hands-on station where children could help construct a house made of mud. “We really promote using nature in the classroom,” said Adell Richards, early childhood education junior. “We are strongly against worksheets. We think kids should be getting messy.” The University’s Recycling and Sustainability managers shared the progress of their departments. Andres Harris, LSU Recycling manager, said the University ranked second in the SEC’s Recycle Mania competition in 2009 after recycling more than 1,300 tons. The National Audubon Institute hosted a booth set up for its Louisiana Coastal Initiative. “We are asking people to fill out postcards that we will mail to members of Congress to support the coastal restoration project,” said David Ringer, Audubon’s communication coordinator. “We want to make it a national priority, and a lot needs to be done on a policy level.” –Contact Sarah Eddington at [email protected]