HUDSON – Across the region, communities spent last weekend cleaning up their community or holding events to celebrate Earth Day.
In Hudson, residents gathered for “Celebrate Earth Day,” which was sponsored by the Hudson Public Library, Hudson High School Environmental Club and Green Hudson.
“We’re getting to the point where we’re really tipping into a climate emergency,” said Green Hudson’s Brian White. “The complexity of the problem is quite high, and the time we have to fix it is vanishing quickly. We’ve spent 40 years not dealing with the problem, and we’re going to spend the next 10 to 15 years hopefully working very, very hard and very, very fast making up for lost time.”
The activities took place on April 18 and 22. Throughout the week, there were posters on display in the library and presentations. Saturday’s activities included a story time, science activities and a “petting zoo” of electric lawn equipment and electric vehicles.
Members of the Environmental Club created the posters, and they volunteered on Saturday, running the kids’ activities, which included experiments. The kids were very involved, said club member and junior Victor Rasmussen.
Earth Day, said club treasurer Avani Kashalikar, is a day to remind people what they can do to make difference.
“Especially with the younger kids, you’re raising a generation that can make an impact as they get older. It’s not just you leaving an impact, but you’re making sure that they will leave an impact,” said Kashalikar.
Also, the high school students were now learning the skills to help the environment as they move onto college and into the real world.
Junior Bruna Oliveira added that climate change can feel like a big problem that people don’t know how to address.
“Just educating more people about it, that’s such a big step,” said Oliveira.
In continuation of the Earth Day celebration, there will be a clean-up on April 29 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. There will be a dumpster and bags available on Municipal Drive.
For more information, visit https://greenhudson.org/.