NMSU Grants beats the winds and celebrates Earth Day

GRANTS, N.M. – New Mexico State University-Grants is a branch of NMSU, a college wellknown for its agricultural program; so of course, the NMSU Grants Student Success Center had big plans prepared for Friday, April 22, also known as Earth Day.

NMSU Grants, located in the north-end of Grants at 1500 N. Third Street, has a garden on campus that has been maintained and cultivated by generations of NMSU Grants students and faculty. The garden lies secluded in a nook in the back of campus, unseen from the front, but it can be seen through windows by students, staff, and faculty who walk along the top floor hallway of the Walter K. Martinez Memorial Hall. The garden is full of trees, bushes, pathways, rock art, and stone and metal artwork created by students over the years.

As time passes during the year leading up to each Earth Day, unwanted weeds grow, rock art shifts, pieces of trash blow in, and tumble weeds accumulate in the garden nook. Therefore, each April 22, students and faculty start off Earth Day festivities by clearing out the unwanted weeds, tumbleweeds, and foliage. Next, different groups or individuals take on different tasks, such as planting trees, ripping out dead trees, raking, watering, clearing out trash, or redefining the rock art. In the past, the rock art has featured a lizard and a Zia symbol; this year, it was a Zia symbol that held up well from the previous year and a cactus.

Earth Day 2022 also differed from Earth Day 2021 in the way that some students from the Early College High School participated. ECHS is a GCCS school program in which students go to high school and college at the same time, and they will ultimately earn both a high school diploma and an associate degree by the end of it. When asked if ECHS students often get to participate in NMSU Grants events, like ones that happen on Earth Day, ECHS English Teacher Russell Davidson said, “We do everything we can. Our students are in a unique situation where they’re Grants/Cibola County Schools high school students, but they’re also New Mexico State Grants students. So, we just always crave opportunities to partner.” Two ECHS students in particular took charge on helping to collect and compress the tumbleweeds in a trailer so that more could fit – scratches, thorns, and all.

Earth Day festivities started at 10 a.m., and they wrapped up at about 12 p.m., just in time to beat the winds. Afterward, students and faculty enjoyed pizza from Dominos, and event organizers prepared to draw names from a list of people who had signed in to participate in the day’s events. There ended up being a total of 11 drawing winners, and those included Megan Stoneking, Tayla Vicente, Erik Oskey, Samantha Ware, Mike Rivers, Patricia Downing, Noah Cerno, Allison Downing, Shiann Medina, Corina Vogel, and an unknown eleventh winner. Prizes for drawing winners included a choice of two birdhouses, some gardening tools, and multiple potted plants, according to NMSU Grants Term College Instructor Janet Prewett. The day’s events also included a safe emissions demonstration, as well as free emission checks by the college’s automotive program.

Students and faculty discussed how they could make efforts throughout the rest of the year to water and maintain the garden as much as possible, but they will meet once again next year regardless. Earth Day is a day of tradition for NMSU Grants; a day when they make a collective effort to take care of their surroundings in the ways that they can. The Earth Day art that is throughout the campus garden, and spans all the way back to the 2000’s, is a testament of those special efforts, values, and traditions.