SALEM, Mass. - The North Shore community is invited to the campus of Salem State College Monday, April 14 where students will use artwork to set the theme for the college's third annual Earth Day celebration.

Salem State and Healthlink are planning events throughout the day including a student poster competition, an art exhibit by area public schools, an environmental career fair and "Friend of the Earth Awards" presented to environmental activists. All events are free and open to the public.

"We're excited about the opportunity to bring the North Shore community together for this special day," said Krishna Mallick, a professor at the college and one of the event organizers.

Posters created by Salem State College students will be on display from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at the Environmental Research Poster Session and Competition in the college's Commons Dining Hall and Ellison Campus Center. Judges will select the 10 top posters and the artists will each receive $50.

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Environmental Career Fair will take place in the Ellison Campus Center. Booths will be set up by environmental groups to discuss employment and volunteer opportunities.

In the Campus Center lobby, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., the organization "Food, Not Bombs" will serve vegan food.

From 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., in the Martin Luther King Room, there will a panel on "Massachusetts Cities for Climate Protection" with representatives from Gloucester, Cambridge, Brookline and Salem.

Environmental artwork created by students in public schools will be on display April 7 to April 14. The Horace Mann, Saltonstall, Bates, Bowditch, Phoenix and Carlton schools in Salem, the Ford School in Lynn, the Marblehead Middle School and the Salem State College pre-school will be represented.

Also, a "Campus to Coast Cleanup," organized by MassPIRG and the Massachusetts Water Watch, will take place 3 to 6:30 p.m.

At 7 p.m. in Forten Hall of the library, Salem State College president Nancy Harrington will present "Friends of the Earth Awards" to environmental activists Ross Gelbspan and Cindi Luppi. Gelbspan is an internationally-acclaimed expert on global climate change, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of "The Heat is On." Luppi is director for the Clean Water Fund and has led efforts to support local grassroots partners in community-based campaigns. Most recently, she helped establish the Northeast Climate Action Project which is a regional coalition of over 100 organizations all pressing the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers to fully implement the regional Climate Action Plan passed in August 2001.

Past recipients of the Friends of the Earth award have been Governor Jane Swift for her signing of the state's landmark clean air regulations and Jan Schlichtmann for his work on the cleanup of the Wenham Lake reservoir.

For more information, contact Mallick at (978) 542-6298 or e-mail kmallick@salemstate.edu.