Last saturday, On April 20th, the city Chico gathered together for an Earth Day celebration at the endangered species faire. This event usually takes place annually at Cedar Grove, but this year it was held in the Downtown Plaza. The intent is to show care for the environment partly by bringing awareness to animal species that are threatened by climate change. 

There were various attractions such as an orchestra, crafts, face paint, a Cal Fire demonstration, and live animals (including but not limited to alligators and kangaroos). There were groups giving out trees native to Chico, as well as restoration oriented info booths. Prior to the endangered species faire, the traditional parade with animal puppets took place.

This year, Inspire was represented by the precious plastics team. They had a table set up with information regarding the precious plastics program. Precious plastics also offered face painting. The table was run by Vivian Conery, Abby Hanford, Gabriella Noziska Loch Bly, Silas DeGeorge, Brisa Bainbridge, Lauren Bainbrifge, and Rayni Clark.

One of the precious plastics members,Vivian Conery, had this to say about their role in the endangered species event: “Mostly I helped talk to people about precious plastics, what our process is for making our products, and what we do at Inspire.” They consider this to be of importance because it allows precious plastics “to raise awareness about the condition that our world is in, and how we can help change that and fix it.”

Some, such as Vivian, believe that the event was somewhat a success. ‘It’s been pretty good so far. We’ve had a lot of people come up to us,” they said. Others, like Abby Hanford, mentioned that a lack of resources and support meant that the precious plastics table would have to close early. However, they still thought that the event went well. 

Ultimately, the endangered species faire afforded precious plastics with the opportunity to shed light on their program. They demonstrated a  with 14 million tons of plastic waste deposited in the ocean each year (iucn.org), this is certainly an important initiative. As a part of Inspire’s student body, you have the ability to contribute by washing and placing plastic items in the precious plastics bins around campus. It’s as simple as that!