Wesleyan students gather for 350.org event in New Haven. (Rachel Rosengard/Contributing Photographer)

Students and residents of the greater Middletown area gathered on Main Street on Saturday, Sept. 24 for “Moving Earth Day,” with the goal of raising awareness and enthusiasm for a movement away from fossil fuels. The global event was organized by environmental advocacy group 350.org. Several members of the Environmental Organizer’s Network (EON) spearheaded campus and local activities in collaboration with Middletown residents.

On Saturday morning outside the Church of the Holy Trinity on Main Street, members of EON set up a series of booths, each highlighting a different facet of on campus sustainability efforts such as the WILD Wes landscaping project and WesFRESH. Members of EON collaborated with Middletown community leaders, and the event included representation by local businesses and organizations such as the Oddfellows Playhouse, Middletown Art Farm, and Pedal Power Bicycle Shop.

EON Coordinator Oliver James ’14, one of the day’s principal organizers, said that he was struck by the conversations he witnessed between Wesleyan students and members of the Middletown community.

“[The day] really just reveals the importance of community engagement and extending our conversation and our alliances beyond the University level to the greater Middletown-wide community,” he said. “[From the] people that came up to us, we would get into these amazing conversations about a resource that they could provide to us or some reason that they were excited about what we were doing on campus or vice versa.”

EON Outreach Chair Manon LeFevre ’14 said that the event highlighted the sustainability efforts of Middletown residents. In an email to The Argus, she cited one woman she met with two bee hives in her attic that she hopes to donate to Long Lane Farm, and another resident who is planting a roof garden next spring on top of the Community Health Center.

“By talking to people that were there, we discovered really valuable resources that we never knew about,” she wrote. “It was really inspiring to see how our environmental projects and efforts on campus can have a much broader reach, and it made us realize that we don’t see much of that on campus. I can safely say it’s definitely something we’re going to get working on.”

Following the morning on Main Street, a caravan of students traveled to New Haven for a larger rally organized by the Connecticut branch of 350.org. There, according to James, festivities included addresses from the mayor of New Haven and representatives from local New Haven sustainability initiatives. Participants also spelled out “350” in huge numbers on the New Haven green—the ideal number of carbon dioxide parts per million in the atmosphere for global environmental sustainability.

“People all across the world did the same,” he said. “The symbolic action was just really powerful.”

According to James, Wesleyan students were one of the largest contingencies of college students at the New Haven event, which drew students from Yale University, Connecticut College, and Fairfield University. After the rally, James said Wesleyan representatives met with representatives from Yale’s environmental sustainability group, the Yale Student Environmental Coalition (YSEC).

“That organization sort of took us under their wing and after the event concluded, we were invited to come socialize, network, and throw down with members of YSEC,” he said. “It was a recognition of the potential to just really collaborate on issues and increase dialogue between university campuses in Connecticut with issues pertaining to sustainability and the environment.”

EON Coordinator Zach Attas ’13 said that the live stream on the Moving Earth Day website of other celebrations across the globe created an exciting sense of unity.

“You’d see a photo from Cairo, Egypt, where there are hundreds of people marching, and they’re all wearing the same thing and holding up signs and getting really excited,” he said. “You’d see people from all the ends of the Earth [rallying] together.”