That’s a wrap on Earth Day 2023 at Fresno City College.

The Earth Day event takes place every year on campus with co-sponsorship from the math, science, and engineering division. This year the event was held on April 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The activities ranged from local food, games and activities for children, unique educational exhibits from energy, war, death, and water. Along with the educational exhibits, there were more light hearted options to look through such as organic bath bombs, pottery, electric test driving, free bikes, and cultural dances. 

One particular exhibit called Ash Tree Green Burial focuses on an eco-friendly way of decomposing after you die by being placed into biodegradable coffins at 3 1/2 feet over the usual 6 feet. Instead of being fire cremated, there’s now water cremation and the option to become human compost, an all around healthier way to decompose for the Earth. 

Cecily Callahan and Cassie Dufur were both there to provide any information about the organization to guests that happened to stop by. The Ash Tree Green Burial main mission is to open Fresno’s first green burial cemetery. 

“Traditional burial has to do with embalming, a lot of the time and the body is placed in a solid steel wood casket or a metal casket in order to a concrete vault and it just stays there forever and ever,” Callahan said. “Green Burial gets rid of all of that. There’s no embalming, the body goes into a biodegradable casket or shroud straight into the ground at 3 feet so it can properly decompose and become one with the Earth.”

Leslie Porter and Tom Esqueda were speakers for their exhibit called Environmental Collaborative which is an nonprofit organization that focuses on the more environmental aspects of the Earth and what we can do in order to protect and heal. That includes water resources and working with other organizations that can provide and produce green based programs and projects. This exhibit provided herb examples for guests with the plants Lavender, Pineapple Sage, and Peppermint, and cups that you could place corks based on your own personal concern from water, wildlife, etc. 

“We are trying to become an information hub on all things environmental in the Central Valley and Central California, because right now if you do a Google search; how to volunteer, what’s going on in the environment; it’s very scattered.” Said Porter. 

Environmental Collaborative also hosts other environmental organizations on their website in order to help the organization and possibly gather volunteers along the way. 

Make sure to be on the lookout for Earth Day next year, and see what it has to offer FCC.