PCC’s Earth Week celebrations kicks off with recycling fair PlanetCon
Photos and story by James Hill
Sustainability staff at Cascade’s Learning Garden for 2022 Earth Week.
It’s April and spring is in the air. That means Portland Community College’s annual celebration of all things sustainability is right around the corner.
This year, PCC’s Earth Week is April 20-26 and is kicking off with a few big events at the Rock Creek Campus. In Building 9, the recycling fair PlanetCon happens from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, April 20 and is open to everyone. In addition, there will be a free food market, hosted by the college that offers fresh produce provided by the Oregon Food Bank for folks facing food insecurity.
On Thursday, April 25 at 2 p.m., PCC will honor Arbor Month and Earth Week with a tree planting event. Attendees will meet in the Building 5 lobby and walk over to the Aviation building. The event serves as a commemoration of the vital role trees play in the health and sustainability of PCC’s campuses and helps honor Governor Tina Kotek’s recent proclamation of April as Arbor Month in Oregon.
Throughout the week, staff and students will host a variety of fun and informative Earth Week events at each campus, all week long. These include tabling fairs, learning garden work parties, bioblitz events, Rock Creek forest trail cleanup and field trips.
“Earth Week is one of our favorite times of the year at PCC,” said Briar Schoon, the college’s sustainability manager. “The wide variety of college and community stakeholders that come together to spotlight the intersectional sustainability and climate justice work happening at the college and locally, as well as provide fun, hands-on and informative programming, truly makes it special.”
Earth Week Highlights
Eco printing.
Clothing Swap – This event promotes eco-friendly fashion and an inexpensive way for people to update their wardrobe. Bring clothes you want to donate and take some home! Clothing donations are not required to participate, just bring yourself. Noon to 3 p.m., Monday April 22 in the Cascade Campus Student Union.
Oregon Pollinators Art Walk – In honor of Earth Week, the workshop view recently created paintings based on Oregon pollinators, principally hummingbirds. The watercolors are painted on specially prepared canvases that allow for both adding and removing paint to achieve a visually transparent quality. April 22-26, Upper Mall, College Center, Sylvania Campus
Upcycling Crafts Workshop – Crafting with upcycled materials, jewelry making, collaging. Repurpose materials to make new creations! Noon to 2 p.m., Tuesday, April 23, Rock Creek Campus, Building 7.
Islanders in Climate Activism Across the Ocean – Watch the short documentary Tuvalu: A Country Being Lost to Rising Sea Levels and learn about the connections of climate change activism, led by Islander communities that connect Portland to the Pacific Islands. Wednesday, Apr 24, 10-11 am, Southeast Tabor Hall 135
Climate Fiction Booktalk – Thea Prieto, PCC writing instructor and author of From the Caves, will read from her post-apocalyptic novella and discuss other provocative works of climate fiction. The session will address how creative writing can help us discuss difficult topics, discover our thinking, and convey complex emotions, for ourselves or in the classroom. Friday, April 26 from 2-3:30pm, Southeast Library 2nd floor.
Learning Gardens – Located at every campus, the gardens are hosting a variety of events, including potato and tomato plant and seed giveaways, garden tours and planting parties.
In addition to Earth Week, the college’s Sylvania Campus is hosting the Children’s Clean Water Festival – a free environmental education event engaging fourth-grade students from throughout the Portland metro area. The festival is all day on Wednesday, April 30. The event is a collaborative planning effort between multiple metro area agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, local municipalities, City of Portland – Environmental Services and Water Bureau, Clean Water Services, Tualatin Valley Water District, U.S. Geological Survey, and many others. PCC has hosted this event regularly since at least 1999.
For more information on PCC’s Earth Week, visit pcc.edu/earthweek
About James Hill
James G. Hill, an award-winning journalist and public relations writer, is the Director of Public Relations at Portland Community College. A graduate of Portland State University, James has worked as a section editor for the Newberg Graphic... more »