Knox College Celebrates Earth Month with Campus and Community Activities

Knox’s annual Earth Month celebration is a time to celebrate our planet and raise awareness about environmental sustainability efforts. Students and staff scheduled a variety of events and activities to educate the community about the importance of stewarding where we live. 

“We had a good variety of events during Earth Month,” said Director of Sustainability and Resiliency Initiatives, Tina Hope. “Students initiate a lot of these events and recruit others to invest their time as well. Students for Sustainability (S4S) and the Sustainability & Resiliency Project Leaders (SRPL) work together and excel in their leadership roles on campus.”

The month included familiar events like the Arbor Day and Herbal Guild planting and Earth Day Festival, as well as new activities to create more awareness for students, faculty, staff, and the Galesburg community like the Community Seed Swap and the Knox Farm tour with the Galesburg Public Library.

“I think the events were educational and inspiring to many people,” Hope said. “Attendees were drawn to particular events, often leaving motivated to join a community garden, start their own garden, or try planting some seeds. Every day and night featured something new. Students organized an alumni panel with graduates involved in sustainability and the environment, and participated in projects like the Makerspace Repair Shop.

Community partnerships were an unofficial theme of the week as Hope and Knox opened their doors, literally and figuratively, to the community, showcasing the value of caring for our community.

“We’re starting to scale up a little bit but always keep everything educationally based,” Hope said. “Knox is a resource for sharing ideas about regenerative agriculture, composting, and soil health; we’re highlighting what we can do together and making it fun. I’m thankful this is part of my job, helping facilitate meaningful relationships with each other and the Earth.”

The following highlights showcase Earth Month events and efforts that brought together the campus and local community.

Community Clean-up

This year, Knox's annual clean-up moved off campus, bringing students together to pick up trash in the community. 

“I felt like we collaborated even more on the community cleanup this year. We focused our clean up efforts in the surrounding community, adjacent to the areas around the campus,” Hope said.  “We collaborated with Health and Wellness, the Kleine Center, SAAC in Athletics, S4S; KOAC, and many clubs, as well as some of the fraternities and sororities. We even had members of [Galesburg’s] Rotary Club join us. The S4S president Nicole Roman ’28, created very organized maps for each of the 12 groups to follow and this helped provide greater clarity for the clean up zones.”

Community Seed Swap

A new event this year, Knox College joined with the Galesburg Public Library to share seeds and discuss planting and caring for a garden, no matter how large or small.

“This is the first year we collaborated on the Community Seed Swap with the Galesburg Public Library; while they have done it in the past, this year we expanded it and presented on how to sow seeds of nourishment and tend a garden," Hope said. “ Knox students helped prepare for the event and shared some of the work they’ve been doing during the event. I still have people coming up and asking questions about more events like this. It helps highlight that Knox is an educational resource in regards to regenerative growing practices.

Sunset Yoga and Star Gazing

The popular Sunset Yoga and Star Gazing event moved to the Knox Farm, offering gentle movement and relaxation in a beautiful setting.

“We tried something new—we offered a yoga session at the Knox Farm in the Edible Forest Garden at sunset, then afterwards enjoyed star gazing, watching the moon and stars appear at twilight. It was an enchanting evening and everyone hung out in this beautiful greenspace.” 

Arbor Day Tree Planting

Students got their hands dirty as they planted different plants. Students were able to engage ways to care for the plants and learn valuable composting information.

“We’ve been hosting this event since 2019; to commemorate Arbor Day. We have expanded it to a Tree and Herbal Guild Planting— We do not just plant the tree, we support the tree by planting it with a community of plants,” Hope said. “We brought in two new species, service berry and golden currant, we are always trying to increase biodiversity and also learn propagation skills. We also worked on opening up our passive composting systems to utilize the bioactive compost to nurture the new plants in the guilds. We had an amazing turnout and it is always one of the highlights of the Earth Month events!"

Earth Day Festival

The annual Earth Day Festival is another highlight of the month: featuring bands, food, and community as Knox students, faculty, staff, and the Galesburg community celebrated the planet and fellowship. 

“The Earth Day Festival is the culminating event; it is a way to foreground our responsibility in stewarding our community and planet and making it fun. The S4S do such a good job planning and pulling it together. And it is our college community that really shows up to support this student initiative and make it happen,” Hope said. “Student orgs, sororities, fraternities help out. Managing Director of Music Performance Programs Andy Crawford ’00 helps with making sure we get all the equipment for the student bands to play; Matt Reed and his team of students in AV help with the sound equipment. The whole event comes together in such an amazing way, even to the very end, where students even stay and help us clean it all up.”

Knox Farm Tour

Knox Farm tours are always offered, but this year the Knox Farm joined the Galesburg Public Library again to make the tour more of a community experience. 

“We do a lot of tours, but this year we offered one with the Galesburg Public Library as part of their event planning,” Hope said. “We had a great turnout. We provided seeds and soil and let kids plant and propagate plants they were interested in. We really enjoyed having families participate because we love getting kids out here. The library really appreciated the collaboration.”

All of these events help contribute to Knox’s long-standing efforts at environmental stewardship and sustainability. The College recently formed the Sustainability and Resilience Working Group, which collaborated on the publication of the Sustainability Action Plan to provide vision and support to ongoing sustainability efforts and to promote innovation. The Action Plan was developed with involvement from the campus community, faculty, staff, and students. Knox has a strong history of sustainability, serving as a member of AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) since 2012, consistently earning a STARS Silver rating. The College is also listed in the Princeton Review's Guide to Green Colleges, reflecting high scores in environmental policies.

Working toward the strategic initiative of developing a vibrant and sustainable campus, this Action Plan presents a renewed commitment to: building individual, community, and operational resilience and wellbeing in the face of turbulent changes; reducing our collective adverse impacts on the environment; and utilizing the campus as a living lab to put into practice the College’s mission and values.

For more images from Earth Month, visit our Flickr page.