The Cosumnes River College campus hosted an Earth Day event in the quad to kick off their Earth Week celebrations on Tuesday.

Among many attractions, the event featured an exhibition for a tiny home built by the Construction Technology department and a show and tell for electric vehicles by the Sacramento Electric Vehicle Association.

Additionally, SMUD hosted their annual solar car race for middle schoolers all across the Sacramento region. The track was over 70 feet long and each lane was 12 inches wide. They got to build a solar energy powered car and race it down the track.

“The solar car race is open to all middle schools in the Sacramento region,” said Betty Low, a program manager with SMUD. “We give them a couple of months to build and then they get here and get to tinker with the solar panels to get it to run.”

Kevin McEntyre, an 18-year-old construction major who helped build the house, noted the importance of making tiny houses for the homeless community.

“The tiny houses are for a non-profit organization and we are essentially donating them,” McEntyre said. “It’s nice getting to participate and knowing we are making the houses for people that are going to put them to good use.”

SacEV also informed students about the benefits of driving an electric vehicle. David Tokarski, a director with SacEV, brought his BMW CE-04 electric motorcycle to encourage attendees to switch from gas-powered vehicles.

“My CE-04 here comes equipped with an 80-mile range and a top speed of 75 mph,” Tokarski said. “It’s perfect for any daily commute and the battery size helps save money [by] getting to charge it instead of pumping gas into it.”

Along with solar car racing, tiny houses and exhibits about electric vehicles, ways to keep the planet clean was shared with attendees.

“We want our Earth to be here for a long time,” Low said. “We want these kids to get as much experience hands-on as they can so they can grow up on a clean planet, and future generations will be able to do the same as well.”