West Virginia Universitys Student Sierra Coalition has two events planned this weekend to help celebrate Earth DaySunday, April 22and bring attention to environmental issues.

The first is the organizations annual fund-raiser, the Sierra Swing, at 9 p.m. Saturday (April 21) at 123 Pleasant Street to support environmental protection activities. Four bands are booked for the show, including Verns Pot OChili, Greenhouse Effekt, Johnsons Crossroad and Coal Canary.

This is going to be a great show with a wide variety of music that all can enjoy,President Joey Bailey said.

Four prizes will be raffled off at the event: a six-person white-water rafting trip on the New River for two days with Songer Whitewater, a mountain bike donated by Positive Spin, a camping backpack donated by Pathfinder and a gift certificate package from local Morgantown restaurants worth $350.

The second event will begin with a litter pickup followed by a rally Sunday (April 22). Volunteers will meet at 2:45 p.m. in front of the Mountainlair.

After the litter pickup, a Morgantown City Council member and state delegates Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongaliaa co-sponsor of a container recycling bill, or bottle billand Bob Beach, D-Monongalia, are scheduled to participate in a rally at 4:30 p.m. in front of theLair. (In the event of rain, the event will be in theLair Shenandoah Room.)

The trash pickup is to gauge what percentage of litter in Morgantown is recyclable,said John Neubert, recycling ambassador for the Student Government Association.The goal is to move public support toward adoption of a bottle bill.

The first Earth Day was April 22, 1970, when U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin called for an environmental teach-in session as a way of calling attention to environmental issues.

Similarly, Bailey said these events are planned around Earth Daybecause it is a great chance to get people to realize that the Earth is all that we have and that we need to celebrate it and protect it.

He added,By taking actions in our own personal lifestyles to reduce our negative impacts on the Earth, we can take the first step to becoming more environmentally aware. We at the Student Sierra Coalition feel that the time is now for direct action by each and every individual within our community, state, country and world to realize this threat and to do something about itIt is not something that the government or corporations are necessarily doing, but it is something that we are all doing.