The spirit of Earth Day never wanes at Missouri Conservation Corps.
Back in early May, Missouri Conservation Corps propped up a few tables and a canopy on the edge of Peace Park as a participant of the 2025 Columbia Area Earth Day Festival. The festival, postponed from its original April 27th date due to inclement weather, was the largest in its 35 years and hosted a variety of vendors, organizations, and community partners—all in support of the environment. So, on Sunday, May 4th, the warmth of the sun fueled the city’s excitement to leave the cold behind and enjoy the outdoors again as locals and visitors alike took to the streets in celebration of Earth Day.
The Missouri Conservation Corps booth put up a full display complete with t-shirts, stickers, informational flyers, and even a couple baby oaks. Joining us were naturalist and educator Laura Semken and MU Environmental Science student Melanie Cohen, who both led different kid-friendly activities throughout the day.
Laura Semken set up her table and picnic blanket directly behind the booth, on the grass of Peace Park, where people of all ages could play an original game (that Laura crafted herself!) to create the most biodiverse ecosystem. To start, players chose different plants to be the producers of their ecosystem, and then it was revealed to them what species the plants were and how many ‘ecology points’ each plant was worth (e.g., oaks were worth a lot of points while bush honeysuckle were worth none). After tallying how many points their plants generated, players then chose that many animals to fill in their ecosystem. This component challenged players to place animals in the correct food chain relationship: herbivores, omnivores, or carnivores. We saw families with young children discover exciting new facts and college students compete with each other for the best ecosystem. The food chain game was a huge hit with everyone who played!
Under the main canopy, Melanie Cohen set out markers and stamps alongside an unadorned poster. At the beginning of the day, only the words “TOGETHER WE CAN PLANT MORE TREES” were outlined on the sheet, but by the end of the festival, so many people had come by to add a color, a drawing, a stamp that it filled out so fully, we could hardly see the words anymore. The decorated poster truly spoke to how rich the community and the city’s tree canopy could be when everyone takes the time to pitch in and participate.
It was a non-stop day. While Anna Do, our AmeriCorps VISTA Member, staffed the table with the help of MCC Board members, MCC Project Director Stephen Bybee led a group of volunteers in an afternoon honeysuckle hack in Garth Nature Area (What a show of stewardship!).
There was not a dull moment to be had, and we were ecstatic to have the opportunity to talk to new and old faces about our organization and our goals as a point for environmental conservation and community connection. More importantly, there was such an outpour of love and support for our work and the work of all the environment-focused groups who were represented that day. Community support is essential to our mission; it is exactly that spirit that we continue to foster and work towards.
To everyone who visited us that sunny May day: Thank you! We look forward to connecting with you again at the next honeysuckle hack, community event, and Earth Day Festival.
