To the editor:

The Haskell Earth Day Committee would like to thank the Lawrence merchants and the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce who helped so much to make our Earth Day observance so successful by providing food and prizes for our celebration. The cleanup, picnic and prize raffle on April 22 were a success. We had approximately 80 people – students, faculty, staff, students, friends and kids – participate.

We were able to plant trees and flowers and collect several dozen bags of trash and recyclables, notably not only cleaning up our campus but also our sacred sites (the sweat lodges, medicine wheel, cemetery and wetlands). In addition, at the Earth Day Celebration, the Wetlands Preservation Organization was able to collect about 50 new signatures to help stop the South Lawrence Trafficway.

We are sure we were able to have such a great turnout because of the support from local downtown businesses.

Again, we thank these downtown merchants for helping Haskell Indian Nations University continue our tradition of preservation and responsibility, while heightening awareness and promoting sustainability.

Wa-Do.

Jenn Gapetz,

Lawrence