Earth Fest: A Journey

Today was just about the best day ever. That's right, it was Green Up's annual Earth Fest. We had been planning it for months, and so it was great when Friday rolled around and we were pulling the last pieces together. We tie-dye'd shirts for the GU members (adventurous Friday pictured below), and then gathered most of the food.

Karri & Piper, two of SMC's most prominent artists

When I woke up this morning and got my mega-cool shirt on, it was time to get everything together, which mostly included gathering the food in the Ross Sports Center. Since we were letting people make smoothies via riding a geared-up bicycle, there needed to be a lot of fruit. As members of a non-hierarchical club, we of course all had to stuff our fridges with food.

so...much...fruit...

Buuut...put to good use (Lauren, the boss)

And thus the day had begun! We arrived at our location in Ross around 11 and worked until people started arriving at 2:30. We helped the Ben & Jerry's workers set up their serving area, helped the band unload their sound system, set up the grills, smoothie bike and food, and the tie-dye station. We placed Green Up stuff all around the room so people could see what campaigns we had going (Bottle Free SMC!) and grab stickers. We also had to prep basically all the food.

We go classy on the cheese

Then came the floods. I was not the only one doing excessive amounts of advertising, but I didn't expect the throngs of people to descend on us so fast.

Nice work Dom!

Eating vegi-burgers = smallest line

One of the biggest draws is always, of course, the free Ben & Jerry's. We had two awesome scoopers come for the day and produce a constant flow of ice cream for lines that were dozens and dozens of people long. As one Green Upper said, "It's the best because you can just get back in line over and over again!"

I went up 6 times. 6 beautiful times.

And of course, the band that performed, Mission South, was wicked awesome. They played an interesting combination of rock, blues, and a medley of pop songs in country/rock form. It was the most beautiful Hanna Montana cover I had ever heard. As a musician, it was great to see how much people appreciated them. Their email sign-up sheet was several pages deep with St. Mike's kids. And it as awesome of them to come up to Vermont all the way from Washington D.C.

Rockin' it, Green Up style

 As the day ended, and the band left, and Green Up cleaned up Ross, I was pretty satisfied with life. It was just the best day ever, and I try hard not to speak in superlatives when I don't mean them. What was great was feeling a truly positive vibe surrounding activism, because so much of activism concerns the worst things happening in the world. We had a great time, but we did it with local food, organic cotton, and a smoothie bike. That's just the best sort of time!

Oh, and if this Sunday needed a cherry on top (ha!), I won the raffle for the Outdoor Gear Exchange, and snagged this sweet backpack. Double win!