by Robert Visty III, Photo Editor

Some of our readers may know that Saturday, April 22nd was Earth Day, a national holiday created in 1970 to spread awareness for the environment and endangered species. The success of this 53 year old environmental movement has educated millions, and here at Bosco, the Environmental Club continued that tradition by hosting an inaugural farmers market with produce from Bosco’s Agricultural Science Community Garden, which was established in January 2021.

The goal of the day was community building and sustainability education. Even Bosco’s neighbors around campus, some of whom had never been to Bosco before, introduced themselves and shared in harvesting the garden.

“The best part for me was that the neighborhood came. A lot of non-Bosco people got to be a part of the community and for the first time step on campus and see the garden from the inside,” said Mr. Corkhill, Bosco’s Agricultural Science teacher and of of the orchestrators of the event, along with Environmental Club President Vince Mahar.

There were many events for guests to enjoy, including a peach tree planting ceremony, home gardening and sustainability demonstrations as well as the blessing of the garden by the school’s Spiritual Director, Fr. Ted Montemayor.

Children from the neighborhood enjoyed pulling up carrots, eating watermelon and, for the first time, making the connection between soil and store, accomplishing one of Earth Day’s goals of connecting consumers with the source of their food.

The most visible impact of Earth Day and the Environmental Club around campus will be the conspicuous four color trash receptacles that will encourage Bosco students and faculty to properly recycle waste and contribute to cleaning our campus.

“We’re gonna have new recycle bins, new ways to separate your trash in order to really educate students on where our trash is going and reduce our waste stream to landfills,” said Mr. Corkhill, who has been instrumental in pioneering the new trash cans.

“We want to change a lot about our waste consumption here,” he said. “So I think it was a good way to kickstart that campaign. As students, you can see after break and lunch there’s trash on the ground, so we need to not only stop littering, but start sorting our trash. It’s a big cultural shift that has to happen in our school to maintain a green campus and to live responsibly.”

All in all, the first Bosco Earth Day Farmers Market was a huge success. Over 100 community members stopped by to enjoy the produce and learn a little about our environment. But Mr. Corkhill believes the education must turn into individual and collective action.

“On a personal level, most people can change their diet. Not eating as much meat is the quickest way for an individual to make an impact on their carbon emissions. Culturally, we need to be more open minded to change as a whole because change is necessary for us to be more sustainable as a community and a country.”