On Tuesday, April 22, SUNY Fredonia’s Department of Environmental Health, Safety, and Sustainability will host the Earth Day Expo & Farmers’ Market.

Taking place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Williams Center, Multi-Purpose Room on the SUNY Fredonia campus, this event will feature thirty-two booths sharing awareness of our many local, professional and student-led environmental efforts, as well as goods from local farms and small businesses.

Guests will have the opportunity to learn from well-researched semester projects by SUNY Fredonia students, as well as five area middle- and high-school student Science & Tech Entry Program groups. Topics focus on a wide range of environmental and sustainability-related concerns including household product life-cycle analyses, the science of energy generation, earth soundscapes and imagined utopias, and climate change.

Fredonia student groups will provide hands-on environmental and sustainable activities for guests. These include rock painting, packaging milkweed seeds to take home and throw-to-grow, and upcycling through turning t-shirts into no-sew, reusable tote bags and crocheting with plastic bags.

Chautauqua-area conservation organizations will offer educational videos, posters, and brochures. For instance, the Greystone Nature Preserve, Audubon Nature Center, and the Nature Sanctuary Society of Western NY will share their efforts to protect and preserve valuable elements of our area flora, fauna, and ecosystems. The Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy, the Soil & Water Conservation District, and the Western New York Land Conservancy will display information about their practices in the conservation and restoration of our important and diverse local land- and waterscapes.

A final exciting feature of the Expo will be the seven vendors from the Fredonia Farmers Market, who will share fresh produce, meats, baked goods, skincare products, honey and maple syrup, and native plants.

The Expo is an opportunity for the public, as well as Fredonia students and staff, to remember why taking care of our environment is essential. In our community and on our campus, we are surrounded by people who use every day as an opportunity to help and study our environment.

SUNY Fredonia professor, and Earth Day Expo Coordinator, Dr. Tracy Marafiote, explains that 2025 is the 55th anniversary of the first 1970 Earth Day. She cites the famed British explorer-turned-environmentalist, Robert Swan, who stated “the greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” Marafiote adds, “Earth Day is the perfect opportunity to be reminded of the amazing beauty and diversity that we have in Western New York, and to learn about ways that our actions and choices can keep it that way.”