Students, professors and community members enjoyed the spring weather Friday in the Library Quad as they explored the several booths set up there in celebration of Earth Day 2016.

An assortment of student organizations set up booths promoting the globally celebrated holiday.

These booths offered statistical information, items for sale, free “upcycle” crafting and price drawings.

Stevie Momaly, president of Earth Wise, said the activities had an even better turnout than expected.

Momaly organized Earth Wise’s booths, instructing students how to make things out of yarn from plastic (“plarn”), hand towels from old clothes and jewelry from scraped metals.

Earth Wise also had a booth for making terrariums out of small plants and debris from Old Main.

Momaly wanted to show others how to creatively reuse items and make them of value again through a process also known as upcycling.

Though Momaly is finishing graduate school this year, she plans on coming back to help out with Eastern’s Earth Day celebration next year.

The Geoscience club also had a booth and sold baked goods and rocks.

Dan Curtis, a member of the Geoscience club, was at a separate booth showing quick facts about the amounts of minerals still left on earth.

Students would spin a wheel Curtis made and read off the fact given about a random mineral.

“These are just some of the more commonly used things, you’re using in your day-to-day life even if you’re not aware of it,” Curtis said. “Almost every single one of these metals, for example, are inside your cell phone or inside of a computer.”

Curtis said the amount of silver used in the world typically catches people off guard because many only think of the metal being used in jewelry.

However, Curtis said these metals are heavily used in electronics and according to his fact wheel, if the entire world was using silver at the rate of the U.S., the planet would run out of the metal in 10 years.

Curtis also talked about the earth’s limited source of gold, platinum, zinc and many others.

“It might be small amounts but then you think of the sheer number of computers and cell phones in the world,” Curtis said. “There are more people with cell phones than there are with clean water (in the world).”

Students for Peace and Justice showed recent statistics of climate change at their booth.

Members set up large domino props metaphorically showing a “domino effect” of current environmental issues starting with the burning of fossil fuels.

Members also sold fair trade items and gave away free fair trade coffee samples.

Students also participated in “#hugatree,” where they would take a picture of themselves hugging a tree.

These photos were shared on social media alongside pictures from others who participated in the campaign around the world.

To finish off the Earth Day Celebration, Students for Peace and Justice also hosted a movie day Sunday.

Members informed children of the importance of upcycling and environmental issues while watching “Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax.”

Jeff Coy can be reached at 581-2812 or jrcoy@eiu.edu