The challenge went from 8 p.m. Saturday to 8 p.m. Sunday, and results will be calculated once all of the numbers are reported from the picnicking locations, she said.

Amy Jamieson has loved animals as long for as she can remember. Ever since she started learning about conservation efforts to help animals and the environment, she has been focused on doing whatever she can.

When she got the chance to help Fenner Nature Center, 2020 E. Mount Hope Ave., in Lansing, put on an Earth Day celebration for the Lansing community, the zoology junior took it.

The Nature Conservancy, the MSU Zoological Student Association and Fisheries and Wildlife Club were three organizations that helped host a variety of environment-related educational activities at the center, including gardening, land cleanup and trapping and studying small animals from the center’s woodlands.

Molenda said the Nature Conservancy chose to plan a world picnicking event because the organization wants people to see the relationship between sustainable food and the environment.

Jamieson, the vice president of the MSU Zoological Student Association, said although she does not believe many students on campus are interested in Earth Day, she hopes events like this will help inform people about the importance of protecting the environment.

“We’re the ones who are going to make a difference in the world,” she said. “If we want things to change, we have to take the step and do that — otherwise nothing is going to happen.”

Lansing resident Emily Scott attended the event with her husband and two daughters, Iselin, 2, and Lyra, 3 months. Her family participated in the picnicking event and visited other parts of the center.

Scott said she has brought Iselin to Fenner Nature Center in the past, and she tries to encourage her to do activities that will teach her about the environment.

“I think it’s important for them to be aware of the kinds of services that our environment provides for our own health, as well as just the beauty that it shows,” Scott said.