Jon Dunning
Contributing Writer
[email protected]

Sunrise Movement Murray is organizing a virtual strike for Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22.

The group originally planned an in-person climate strike for Earth Day but canceled the event to comply with social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sunrise Movement Murray Hub Coordinator Ashlen Grubbs said people can participate in the virtual strike by making a strike sign, attending the Earth Day Live livestream or tuning into local livestreams. The group is asking that people submit pictures of their signs by Tuesday, April 21, so the photos can be compiled into a collage.

“We’re asking people to submit those photos, which is something that our hub in particular is doing,” Grubbs said. “We’re going to just compile them into a big collage of everyone from Murray State who striked for Earth Day. We’re also going to be doing some banner drops and likely art and potentially music projects that some of our hub members have been working on.”

Grubbs saide Sunrise Movement is planning to use Zoom and Instagram as part of the strike. She welcomes people to send pictures of their Earth Day activities to Sunrise Movement Murray’s Instagram. 

The Sunrise Movement is a national movement created to advocate for the Green New Deal. Murray State established its own hub during the spring 2020 semester.

Sunrise Movement Murray’s first semester as a registered student organization started successfully, and Grubbs wants to keep that momentum up despite not being able to meet in person.

“We had weekly meetings going on and we had the support of a lot of other organizations, the College Democrats and the Sierra Club,” Grubbs said. “It was going really well…in just like three or four weeks of organizing we had over 60 pledges to come to our strike when it was still going to happen.”

Grubbs was worried about what would happen to the group’s Earth Day plans in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, but believes the Sunrise Movement has adapted to the current situation.

“It was definitely a really big learning curve, but the national organization has been great about giving us resources and helping us establish skills that we needed to move online,” Grubbs said. “I definitely was concerned when we first moved home that all of our plans for Earth Day were going to fall through, but they’ve actually just all shifted into a new way of organizing.”

To keep up to date with Sunrise Movement Murray, check out the group’s Instagram @sunrisemvmtmurray. The Sunrise Movement offers more information about its national advocacy on its website sunrisemovement.org.

https://www.sunrisemovement.org/

https://www.instagram.com/sunrisemvmtmurray/

https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/