The City of Cupertino hosted its annual Earth and Arbor Day Festival at the Library Field Park on Saturday, April 22, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. During the event, community members celebrated Earth Day by visiting vendors consisting of youth organizations, nonprofits and various businesses to learn about different environmental issues and solutions. Attendees also participated in a variety of activities including rock climbing, face painting, food trucks and performances on a solar-powered stage. 

Junior Iniyaa Suresh volunteered at a booth for the Youth Environmental Power Initiative, where she quizzed community members on environmental trivia questions in exchange for various prizes such as custom T-shirts, pins and other small collectibles. 

“We started [to] prep a couple of weeks in advance, deciding who would do what tasks, how we would engage the audience and just set-up, clean up and a lot of [other] details,” Suresh said. “In terms of the actual event, we didn’t prepare as much as we would [have] for other events because this is a booth that we’ve run in the past, so we already have experience [running it].”

Overall, she enjoyed the volunteering experience and says the event helped smaller organizations gain more visibility and garner interest from potential partners or members.

“This event is a great way for similar vendors to find possible business partners, especially in regard to environmental causes,” Suresh said. “[By] finding people who are similar to them, sustainability organizations [that] are developing can find a lot of opportunities which they wouldn’t be able to otherwise.”

Gallery • 9 Photos

Sarah Liu

Senior Lourdes Diaz listens as junior Iniyaa Suresh asks community members an environmental trivia question.