“We have one Earth and we have to take care of it.”

The statement was made by Marshall Noon Rotary Club member Laura Mueller-Anderson on Wednesday during a cleanup of the diversion channel near Highway 59 in Marshall. Students from Marshall High School and Southwest Minnesota State University and professors form SMSU joined the Rotary group in the diversion channel project.

Taking care of Earth was the theme in many communities across the globe as Earth Day was celebrated.

Marshall Noon wasn’t the only Rotary club busy on Earth Day. We suspect other Rotary clubs got busy with other related projects of their own, including the New Ulm group.

New Ulm Rotary members Colleen Skillings, Duane Lambrecht, Randy Schroeder, Andy Bieble, Kevin Sweeney, Duane Lasffrenzen, Dan Drugan and Harold Remme walked a 2-mile stretch of ditch by Essig and collected multiple bags of trash.

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 since 1970.

According to earthday.org, this year’s theme for Earth Day was “Our Power, Our Planet.”

“Refers to the role of people and communities worldwide in sustaining environmental protections that affect the cost of living, public health, infrastructure reliability, and long-term stability,” the website states. “Environmental conditions influence food systems, water availability, energy access, disaster risk, and economic resilience across all regions. Community participation has historically shaped these outcomes across countries and political systems.

It called on communities worldwide to take action during Earth Week to support clean air, clean water, clean energy, protected natural resources and climate stability.

“These factors are directly linked to human health, economic predictability, food security, and cross-border infrastructure performance,” the website also stated.

However, taking care of our Earth can’t be done on just one day of the year. It’s vital for more volunteers get involved in environment type projects in the days, months and years ahead.

Like Mueller-Anderson stated: We have one Earth.