Earth Day is a day devoted to the environmental health of our planet. It is observed in countries all over the world, and is designed to educate people about the Earth’s environment and what we can do to help our planet.

On Saturday, April 25, MATC’s West Allis Campus celebrated Earth Day for the 30th year in a row by cleaning up a 28-square-block section of West Allis. The event was organized by Jerry O’Sullivan, Coordinator of Student Life, along with Travis Lilach and Danny Blake, members of the West Allis MATC student senate.

Students and non-students gathered at the West Allis Campus to start the cleanup, but just as they were getting ready, it started pouring rain.

Not to disappoint the volunteers, Mr. O’Sullivan decided to move the celebration indoors and provided the volunteers with a free lunch, while Danny Blake’s band Abbey Road performed. Abbey Road was a huge success at the event, performing Beatles’ hit songs along with “Earth Day” (sung to the Beatles’ song “Birthday”), and Jerry O’Sullivan even performed with them.

When asked about whether he would have preferred a nice day to clean up the city, Mr. O’Sullivan replied, “Reverse situations are better because you have to fight through to make it happen.”

Even though it was a stormy day, the spirit of Earth Day still shone through, and a few brave volunteers decided to journey outside and help clean up the city.

In the future, Mr. O’Sullivan hopes that MATC can coordinate a city-wide event to help clean up West Allis. Until then, we should all keep doing our part to help make our planet a little greener.

(Alison Fortney)