Last fall, Penn Environmental Group piled trash on College Green. This semester, PEG continued its efforts to raise awareness with a festival in Houston Hall last Friday, called GreenFest.
This semester's GreenFest was originally planned to take place on College Green but was moved into Houston Hall due to inclement weather. The festivities were then moved outdoors again to Wynn Commons when, contrary to the forecast, it didn't rain.
The event is intended to enable Penn's administrators, students and local groups to educate the community about sustainability and eco-friendly living.
Students could participate in activities such as tie-dying T-shirts and playing "recycle pong" with recyclables and recycling bins. There was also free food, music and PEG T-shirts with environmental slogans available for purchase.
Students who attended said GreenFest was both fun and enlightening. Aditya Jayanthi, a freshman in the Engineering School, said he appreciated the way "the organizers were able to make the event a lot of fun while reminding us all of our obligation to be environmentally friendly."
A number of student groups, such as Penn Outdoors, Penn Vegetarian Society and Engineers Without Borders, manned stalls. PVS, for example, was there to "show students that changing diet is the easiest way to change your environmental footprint for the better and that there is good vegetarian food sold both on and slightly off campus," said Victor Galli, a freshman in the College and head of PVS.
On the administrative side, Green Campus Partnerships, Penn Bookstore and PennMOVES each had a stall at the event. Local Philadelphia groups like Philly Car Share, Clean Air Council and UC Green were also present.
College senior and main organizer of GreenFest Ashley Templeton said the day was a way to encourage students to strive to make Penn a more sustainable institution and to "celebrate living green."
Another organizer, College freshman Ashima Sukhdev, was pleased with the turnout and the exposure the event gave the groups involved. "The nicest thing was hearing students say that they couldn't wait for next semester's GreenFest," she said.
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