Kicking Off the New Year with a New Fair

Twenty Elmhurst College students helped volunteer at the first Annual Cantigny Green Fair that was held on Saturday, September 26 at Cantigny Park in Wheaton. The fair was sponsored by Cantigny Park, part of the McCormick Foundation, and SCARCE, an organization dedicated to educating and inspiring people about Eco-friendliness. The Fair was designed to celebrate Eco-friendly practices as well as to educate the community and local businesses on how we can continue to think green.

The 20 Elmhurst College students who volunteered their time for this fair were asked to help handle the assortment of e-trash (electronics like DVD players, radios, computers, etc.) that had been donated to be recycled as a part of the Fair’s Recycling Extravaganza. The Extravaganza was held to help keep useful or recyclable items out of landfills. The Extravaganza not only sorted through electronics, but also took vinyl records, inkjet cartridges, water filters, scrap metal and old or damaged American flags so they could be properly retired.

The students helped load the donations onto a converted flatbed, then sort through the various types of equipment. Although the work was not necessarily exciting, Junior Leif Mueller says “the experience was great… it was something worth doing on a Saturday afternoon”. It was great for the fair as well, because as the student volunteers were handling the trash donations, other volunteers were able to help run the “FashionEcoNista” Show, the organic and local Farmers Market and several Eco-activities for kids.

The Green Fair turned out to be a big success, with over seventy five vendors and even more volunteers helping to bring education and insight to the community about thinking green and creating sustainable communities. Hopefully even more students will be able to volunteer next year to continue this new tradition at Cantigny Park!



For more information about Cantigny Park please visit http://www.cantigny.org/
For more information about the McCormick Foundation please visit http://www.mccormickfoundation.org/
For more information about SCARCE please visit http://www.bookrescue.org/