Students and faculty working through the NMU Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences (EEGS) department are banding together to put on events revolving around sustainability for the fourth annual Anderton’s Earth Week.

The week will take place from April 16 to 20 and events range from free bike tune-ups to a “Let’s Talk Plants” booth featuring free plants.
The celebration of Anderton’s Earth Week has grown and developed over the years, EEGS department head and Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU) faculty adviser Susy Ziegler said.

“We started Anderton’s Earth Day four years ago, and this [event] has expanded to fill a whole week of activities to get students, faculty, staff and community members thinking about planet Earth and different ways that we can appreciate it,” Ziegler said.

The annual celebration became a tradition through the efforts of students from GTU and now includes events put on by students from an Intro to Sustainability class and students involved in EcoReps. This week of celebration was inspired by the memory of former student, geography professor and department head John Anderton who died unexpectedly four years ago, Ziegler said.

“This will be the fourth year that we’re honoring his memory and his commitment to the study and care for planet Earth,” she said. “This is in part to help keep his memory alive and his passion for teaching about Earth and the environment alive, and to pass on that passion for being part of this really special world.”

Students in an Intro to Sustainability class have had the opportunity to learn about sustainability through the creation of events for Anderton’s Earth Week, said senior earth science major Nolan Bergstrom.
“It’s a big deal for people to become more independent as people,” Bergstrom said. “It’s about shifting the mindset away from a disposable economy.”

He added that it is important to hold events like this within the learning community.

“There’s only one Earth, only one,” he said.

Anderton’s Earth week has something for everyone, said president of GTU and senior environmental science major Holly Roth. She added that this event is also a great way to learn about geographical fields.

“We would love to see anyone who is thinking about switching majors or are undeclared right now and want to get a better idea of what they want to do with their studies as well as in the future,” Roth said. “We’re going to have five or six panelists who were all in the same boat and have found their way into the geographical field and love what they’redoing right now.”