On Saturday, Anniversary Plaza was transformed by live music, food and people. The crowds were gathered for Sustainapalooza, an event generating environmental awareness on campus.
From 1 to 6 p.m., eventgoers could peruse a variety of booths, including a section for club tabling, vendors, food and a clothing swap.
One of the newest registered student organizations, Club Insecta, was out on the Main Quad sharing its perspective on environmentalism.
“We are doing our best to promote the idea of sustainability through the guise of bugs,” said Zaira Shahid, junior in LAS.
The club focuses on general entomology and aims to educate its members on different types of bugs and the role they play in the environment. Shahid believes that the key to learning about environmental sustainability as a whole is to look at the smaller things — namely, bugs.
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Sachi Tillu, junior in LAS and Club Insecta member, recognizes that events like Sustainapalooza not only bring recognition to organizations on campus but also to the broader theme of climate change and sustainability.
“People need to know how many facets of their life (climate change) could affect,” Tillu said. “It’s not just at the top, it’s not just the glaciers. It’s here in Illinois; it’s our crops, it’s our flooding and it’s everything.”
The representation of student organizations had a wide range with tables for the Stitching Illini, the Cheese Club, Illini Solar Car, the Beekeeping Club and more.
On the other side of the Quad lay the event’s vendors, who sold various goods that included jewelry, keychains, pins and soap.
Extensive planning done by the Student Sustainability Leadership Council and its co-sponsors — the Illini Union Board, Illini Union, Facilities and Services, iSEE and the Student Sustainability Committee — made Sustainapalooza possible.
The leadership council has met every week since January, reaching out to organizations and promoting the event.
Natalie Reed, junior in ACES and member of the SSLC, shared one reason the event is especially pertinent to University students.
“There’s so many different environmental and sustainability organizations and majors on campus, so it’s just good to showcase that and everything going on on campus,” Reed said.
The council aimed to make Sustainapalooza a fun and engaging event. The crowd participated in several activities, including a smoothie station. Eventgoers could ride a bicycle that would power a blender to create smoothies to try.
“I think part of the issue with where we’re at in terms of climate change is getting people to care about the Earth and be interested in the Earth,” said Ben English, sophomore in ACES and SSLC member. “If you have fun events like Sustainapalooza, where sustainability is the core focus, people can understand that it can be fun and it can be interesting and it’s important to fight for this stuff.”
English and Reed recognized that, in today’s political climate, many people may feel that there is nothing they can do to help create positive change.
Despite recently taking office, the Trump administration has made several controversial executive orders, including some that target environmental concerns. These changes include blocking state climate change policies and boosting coal production.
These orders may spark worry and fear among many environmentalists. However, English acknowledged the importance of thinking locally when it comes to solving global issues.
“Especially now, given the new administration, it’s going to be really hard to get progress made, and so I think it’s important for students to realize that there’s a lot of power in local community involvement,” English said.
If nothing else, Sustainapalooza was a true testimony to the size and power of the sustainable community in the Champaign-Urbana area.
