The UA’s first Environmental Club Fair took place on the UA Mall on Wednesday, Nov. 30, with different clubs sharing their club information on signs and handouts at tables.
The idea to have an environmental club fair came from a Student Energy Collective meeting, which involved students from clubs like Solar Cats and the Environmental Awareness Society, where students discussed making the different clubs more of a community.
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“We figured that we would have a big club fair and network a little better and put out the word of all the different opportunities to get involved,” said Jessica McGarey, a senior majoring in environmental studies and the president of the Environmental Awareness Society.
Six clubs were at the fair, though McGarey said there were around 16 clubs signed up to be at the fair originally. Many cancelled because finals are right around the corner.
She said she hopes to make the fair an annual event in the beginning of the fall semester and is teaching her club’s shadow president how to help put the fair together.
The fair was located across from the farmer’s market on the Mall. The fair was also originally going to be in the main area of the Mall, closer to Old Main, but was pushed back by the Mall’s main stage area because of construction for the USS Arizona Memorial, according to McGarey.
“I think not a lot of people come around this area, so having the food stand and stuff definitely helps people come over,” said Sarah Wolsiffer, a junior majoring in wildlife conservation and management and the vice president of the Marine Awareness and Conservation Society.
Wolsiffer said her club usually sees the most people showing up to meetings after a club fair.
“Because this is not advertised a lot, no one really knows that it’s the environmental club fair; it might just be a club fair, and so I think that can hurt us a little bit because people who are interested in the environment might not know about this,” Wolsiffer said. “But it’s also kind of beneficial, because people will just walk by and be like, ‘Oh wow, what is this?’ ”
Just walking by is what drew Zaynah Kmeid, a sophomore majoring in environmental sciences, to the fair. She said she had not heard about the fair before seeing it today and had recognized one of her friends at one of the club’s tables.
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“I saw there was all these environmental things, and I was like, ‘Oh cool, I should look at that’ because of my major,” she said.
Kmeid said she did not sign up for any clubs but did sign some petitions at the fair and plans to join some clubs in the future.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Environmental Awareness Society has a petition to allow reusable water bottles inside campus sports arenas, and the Center for Biological Diversity has a pledge to “stand up and fight Trump’s bad policies on the environment” and other platforms, according to Leigh Moyer, a population organizer with the Center for Biological Diversity.
“I definitely think that the more involved we get and the more we work together … That’s the only way that we’re really going to make change,” Moyer said. “If I sit behind my desk, I can email people all day, but it’s really about making those connections.”
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