CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More than 500 students across West Virginia traveled to the Clay Center in Charleston Thursday to learn about different aspects of the environment.
The state Department of Environmental Protection hosted its annual Earth Day celebration event to provide children with hands-on activities about water, wildlife, forests, air quality and more.
The event was part of the department’s “Make It Shine” program to cut down on litter statewide.
“It gives kids a chance, kids that live in urban areas a chance to appreciate the nature and wildlife that makes this state so great,” Terry Carrington, the program coordinator with the DEP, told MetroNews.
The DEP had booths set up as well as Appalachian Power, West Virginia American Water, the state Division of Forestry, the state Solid Waste Management Board, Three Rivers Avian Center, the state Division of Natural Resources, the state Department of Agriculture and the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department.
Children were able to touch a snake, check out a mobile aquarium with fish from West Virginia’s rivers and lakes, participate in activities having to do with solar air quality, recycling and more.
Carrington said the event is meant to show students the importance our actions can have on the environment.
“It’s not just how the environment influences us. It’s how how our actions influence the environment,” he said.
Earth Day is Friday.