On April 23, Pelham Eliminates Plastics and EcoPel hosted a community Earth Day Festival at the Gazebo on Fifth Avenue. It featured various stations including live music, strawless lemonade sipping, and a native plant giveaway.

The festival featured other groups like the Pelham Preservation and Garden Society, a Pollinator Pop-up, the PMHS Environmental Science Club, and several others. Music groups including the Heartbeats, the Acapelicans, and Crimson Utopia played live music.

“I generally think it had a great impact in making people think about their sustainability on a local and individual level,” Ava Knickerbocker, the student president of PEP, said.

Pelham Eliminates Plastic is a student run organization that is promoted to raising awareness and educating the community about the effects of plastic in the environment. They organized multiple stations including the lemonade stand and hosted an informational trivia game.

There were multiple community events held the week of Earth Day including a screening of “Kiss the Ground” at the picture house and a sustainability career panel in the auditorium. Knickerbocker believes that younger generations are especially important in promoting sustainability and advocating for the environment.

“Climate change and other environmental issues are objectively a crisis but it’s not always treated like one,” Knickerbocker said. “The more community members who are aware of environmental problems, the more we can mobilize to fight for action.”

With the event being a great success, PEP hopes to make it an annual endeavor. In the meantime, sustainability groups around Pelham are planning a conjoined community cleanup event in local parks.