Earth Day - BAR HARBOR, MAINE - "Bar Harbor college goes all out for Earth Day".

Some schools have homecoming weekend; College of the Atlantic has Earth Day.

"Earth Day is the only celebration that COA has really stopped everything to recognize," said Milja Brecher-Demuro, coordinator for the school’s festivities, which were held Saturday, April 21. "Since the beginning of the school, that’s one that we’ve celebrated, for the main reason that it speaks exactly to what COA is about."

Thanks to phenomena such as Al Gore’s documentary, >"An Inconvenient Truth," the environment has been an especially hot topic over the past year. Now more than ever, the issues that COA students study are at the forefront of national consciousness.
"There’s been a lot of questioning about what’s gone wrong. We are looking to celebrate what’s going right, and what’s beautiful about the earth," said Brecher-Demuro. "We’re looking at the forward thinkers, and those who have worked to help us have a smaller footprint on the earth, and to have it last as long as possible."

To that end, the theme for this year was "Home is Where the Earth Is: A Celebration in Renewing Community," and events focused especially on community involvement in making Earth a cleaner, better place to live.
There were several additions to the usual lineup of lectures, workshops, children’s activities and food, including the first "COA-Palooza," featuring an evening of music from COA students and alumni.
Keynote speaker Cathy Johnson, North Woods project director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine and a 1974 COA alumna, gave a talk about the future of Maine’s North Woods. Lectures about environmentally friendly parenting, midwifery, alternative education and socially responsible retirement planning were held as scheduled.
Earth Day this year also functioned as an alumni weekend, with former students from around the country invited to attend. Some of these alumni were part of the photography exhibit at the Ethel H. Blum Gallery, while others were participating in the daylong alumni film festival at McCormick Hall.