Happy spring! Don’t you just love when spring finally comes around? The beautiful and warm spring days are much needed after this past freezing winter.

What’s not to love about spring? You’ve got beautiful flowers, bees and butterflies, short-sleeve weather, more daylight, bright blue skies, and a very important day: Earth Day.

According to the official website for Earth Day (EarthDay.org), “Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.”

Earth Day is incredibly important in helping save our planet. EarthDay.org is a website dedicated to the ways we can all help contribute to saving our home before it’s too late. 

Bridgewater State University is organizing a volunteer event called the Earth Day Volunteer Project this month to help make a difference in our community. According to the BSU website, this volunteer project will take place at Sharing the Harvest Community Farm on April 23 from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

According to Sharing the Harvest Community Farm’s official website (YMCASouthCoast.org), “Sharing the Harvest is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven community farm that was established in 2006 as a grassroots response to hunger at the local level. The farm’s mission is to alleviate hunger, promote volunteerism, and provide agricultural education on the south coast of Massachusetts.”

Laura Mulvey (she/her), the assistant director for BSU’s Community Service Center, spoke about this upcoming project and what BSU student volunteers will be participating in at the farm. 

“BSU student volunteers will be helping to create compost sites at the farm and prepare the fields for planting vegetables and fruits,” said Mulvey. “We will meet on campus and travel to the farm together. We have room for up to 50 students to join. Students will be provided a light breakfast and lunch.”

Mulvey explained why she thinks this is an important project to participate in and what opportunities can come out of this volunteer project.

“This service project has a few different important components. First the ability to connect students to a direct service opportunity that benefits the region and offers a place for them to volunteer in the future,” said Mulvey. “We hope this project helps students connect to each other and their local community.  Secondly, all of the produce grown on the farm is donated to anti hunger initiatives to ensure that families have access to fresh fruits and vegetables.  The work that volunteers will support on the farm will help the farm meet it’s mission and provide food to people facing food insecurity.”

We can all make a difference. If you would like to volunteer, visit the BSU website to pre-register.

Happy Earth Day! I hope we all can take a moment to appreciate the beauty of what we all call home.