Focus Frostburg is a yearly annual
fair held in spring on campus to help raise awareness of sustainability and
climate awareness. This year, the fair was hosted in the Lane University
Center. The fair is free to students, faculty, and the community of Frostburg,
and includes events such as seminars and walk around scavenger hunts that
anyone is welcome to participate in. Focus Frostburg has presentations ranging in
all issues such as food waste, natural disasters, environmental justice, many
of the issues covered in the course Sustainability 155 & 455, two courses
offered at Frostburg State. In LUC 109 there was a poster display made by the
students of SUST155 and SUST455 for one of their final projects of the
semester. Steven Meister, a student of SUST155, worked as one of the attendees of
the poster display, and when asked why he was taking SUST155 he said “I took
this class because I was interested in ways to make use of resources and
community sustainability.” His professor, Ms. Tracy Edwards, walked him to help
explain what exactly sustainability was and some topics discussed in the class.
She explained, “What we try to cover in class are topics that are pretty much
anything unfair. It can range from discussing about the environment to racism,
and as you can see one of the posters displayed was focused on environmental racism.
All of these aspects are issues that we try to emphasize are important.” One of
the scavenger hunts was based around the posters made by the sustainability
students, and if completed in and turned in there was a prize offered!
Another activity Focus Frostburg
offered was the “Wholesome Harvest Co-op Table,” formally known as “Wholesome
Harvest Co-op LLC.” Wholesome Harvest was formally a store on main street started
by a local woman of Frostburg to sell healthier options for food such as
vegetables and fruits. The owner could not keep up with the store due to her
old age, so she attempted to ask for help from the community and was very successful
in doing so. In August a public meeting at the coffee shop, “Clatter,” was held
and more than fifty community members showed up to help Wholesome Harvest survive.
Out of these fifty members who showed up, ten came together as a team and call
themselves the “members” to the organization, who meet up weekly and continue
efforts to save the store. Woody Getz, one of the ten volunteers, was the
attendee at the table and was bubbly with the fact that because of their
ongoing efforts, Wholesome Harvest would reopen their store in May and it would
be a place where all of the Frostburg community could shop for healthy and nutritious
food. When asked if he got any benefits from volunteering he answered, “I care
about helping to provide the community with nutritional food. That is why I
volunteer, I enjoy others having healthy options and supporting small business.”
Focus Frostburg is a great and free
way for the community of Frostburg to learn about sustainability, what it is,
and how important it is for us as people to address these issues and work
together to solve them.
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