CMC NSTP students spearhead successful Earth Day clean-up effort

On April 1, 2023, the Central Mindanao Colleges (CMC) was a hive of activity as students and staff united to organize a successful clean-up drive in honor of Earth Day. The CMC National Service Training Program (NSTP) spearheaded the event, dubbed “CMCians in Action: Clean as You Go, Begin!” to promote environmental awareness and responsibility among the CMC community.

The event saw enthusiastic participation from the students and staff as they collaborated to clear litter and debris from every corner of the campus, including classrooms, corridors, and outdoor spaces.

The “clean as you go” principle, which emphasizes cleaning up after oneself and disposing of waste properly, was the focal point of the event.

The tireless efforts of the CMCian participants resulted in a cleaner and more pleasant campus, highlighting the power of collective action and community engagement in advancing environmental sustainability.

The event’s success was also due to the support of the CMC management. The NSTP clean-up drive at the CMC campus serves as an excellent model of community engagement and action needed to restore our planet.

The theme for Earth Day 2023 is “Invest in Our Planet,” which underscores the need to protect the earth from pollution and deforestation. The celebration on April 22, 2023, will bring together over a billion people worldwide to participate in activities such as picking up litter and planting trees to make the world a happier and healthier place to live.

Earth Day originated in 1970 in the United States in response to the devastating oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, the previous year. The event was first proposed by peace activist John McConnell at a UNESCO conference in San Francisco, who proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace. This day of nature’s equipoise was later sanctioned in a proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary-General U Thant at the United Nations.

A month later, United States Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed the idea to hold a nationwide environmental teach-in on April 22, 1970. He hired young activist Denis Hayes to be the National Coordinator, who renamed the event ‘Earth Day.’ Denis and his staff expanded the event beyond the original idea for a teach-in to include the entire United States.

More than 20 million people poured out on the streets, and the first Earth Day remains the largest single-day protest in human history. It also helped spur the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of important environmental legislation.

Earth Day is an important occasion to promote environmental awareness and responsibility.

The CMC NSTP clean-up drive serves as an excellent example of community engagement and action needed to restore the planet. By working together, we can create a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable world for generations to come.

(DN, CMC Lions’ Quill)

Photos used with permission from ICMC | Photo credits: Art Tubil and Lawrs Mauricio | ICMC

Poster : ELTM | ICMC

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