Students volunteer at Cool Davis Festival

By Kate Lee,
Bluedevilhub.com Staff–

Davis High students were able to combine a community service opportunity with a chance to learn about saving the Earth at the Cool Davis Festival on the morning of Oct. 11. Held next to the Farmers’ Market from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., the annual Cool Davis Festival consisted of several booths that taught people about living a more eco-friendly life.

The festival featured a Cool Solutions zone where experts in home energy, water conservation  and other topics answered questions people had about ways they could reduce their carbon footprint. The festival also had a gardening zone, a kid zone and an exhibit on electric vehicles.

Sophomores Arzoo Manandhar and Maya McHale both volunteered for the third year in a row through school related activities– California Scholarship Federation (CSF) and the Environmental Club.

Over the years, Manandhar and McHale have done all sorts of different jobs for the Cool Davis Festival, including running a recyclable arts and crafts booth for kids, handing out reusable veggie bags and walking around with a giant rain drop mascot.

“[Participating in Cool Davis] has taught me that it’s really easy to just do small, everyday things to help the environment, and even though they may seem small, they’re still worth doing,” Manandhar said.

“I like how they have a lot of family-friendly activities, because it gets the whole community involved,” McHale said. “With arts and crafts, bike exhibits and booths about making your home more energy-efficient, there’s something for people of all ages.”

Junior Danny Medina worked this morning selling posters and t-shirts.

“[The Cool Davis Festival] shows people that there are a lot of different ways people can reduce their carbon footprint.  Something I should probably start trying to do is drive my car around less,” Medina said.

Mark Tebbutt is the treasurer on the Cool Davis Board of Directors. Tebbutt’s family all shares one high-mileage car, and they bike to everything they can. He does not have grass, he uses solar panels and his family tries to garden their own fruits and vegetables when possible. Tebbutt believes that people would begin to enjoy their lives more if they lived a little more simply.

“I like trying to be a part of the solution to a big problem,” Tebbutt said. “Plus this lifestyle is healthier and I’m out in nature more. But people shouldn’t think they have to make drastic lifestyle changes to help out–do the easy things first. Drive less when you can, and use less water in the yard. Those things count, too.”