Jonesboro, AR — (JonesboroRightNow.com) — April 23, 2025 — Elementary students from across Northeast Arkansas celebrated Earth Day on Tuesday on Arkansas State University’s campus.
The event was themed around “Our Power, Our Planet,” and saw students learning about protecting the environment, potting soil, holding animals and more.
Melissa Dooley, director of environment, health and safety at A-State, said over 200 students attended.
“There are so many different areas when it comes to wanting to save our planet and do those things that we can do,” Dooley said. “This gives them an opportunity to see all the different types of areas where they can do that.”
In addition to public schools, the event also saw homeschooled students and students from Wynne Primary, St. Mary’s and Piggott Elementary Schools.
“The goal is to educate, right, and show students different things that they can do,” Dooley said. “They might think, ‘well, I’m not interested in environmental science’. Oh, but you’re interested in animals, or you’re interested in insects, or you want to work with plants. You might want to work in hospitality. Even in hospitality, they have environmental situations in which they have their own little garden that they grow, like their seasonings and stuff. Embassy Suites have solar panels on top of their building.”
Local businesses and organizations served as vendors. Vendors included Embassy Suites, Keep Jonesboro Beautiful, Regions Bank, the Dean B. Ellis Library, the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library and SMART Reproduction, the Arkansas Game and Fish’s Forrest L. Wood Crowley’s Ridge Nature Center and the Paragould High School Environmental Club.
A photo gallery from the event is below.
