WINSTON-SALEM – Well, with a Fighting Pickle as mascot, you might expect that the North Carolina School of the Arts is going green.

The School’s first-ever Environmental Awareness Day will be held Friday, Nov. 9, on the campus at 1533 South Main St., Winston-Salem.

Members of the campus community will have the opportunity to see film screenings, visit displays from environmentally friendly agencies and vendors, and hear remarks from various dignitaries about how and why to “go green.”

An NCSA high school science class will also conduct a groundbreaking/ribbon-cutting ceremony for its campus beautification project.

“I have high hopes that we can do this annually, and open it to the public next year,” said Cathy Pighini, the university administrative manager for the High School Academic Program and co-chair of NCSA’s Sustainability Committee who spearheaded the day’s events.

A group of approximately 50 NCSA students, faculty and staff recently participated in the Big Sweep waterway cleanup in October, representing the NCSA Sustainability Committee.

The Environmental Awareness Day will begin at 9 a.m. when several ecologically minded films (courtesy of the Sierra Club) will begin screening at the School of Filmmaking. The films will include TOO HOT NOT TO HANDLE, KILOWATT OURS, POWER SHIFT and CLIMATE OF CHANGE.

At 9:15 a.m., the High School Environmental Science class will conduct its groundbreaking/ribbon-cutting ceremony that will signify a public pledge and commitment to taking charge of a plot of land next to the High School Connector Building to compete in Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful’s upcoming “Clean and Green” contest.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., various environmental groups and vendors will have displays and informational materials on campus in the Daniels Plaza, which is adjacent to the Hanes Student Commons. These groups include: Forsyth County Environmental Affairs Department, Sierra Club, Earth Share of North Carolina, Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful, Piedmont Environmental Alliance, Piedmont Land Conservancy, and many others. (Rain site: Eisenberg Social Hall in the Hanes Student Commons.)

The first of four featured presentations on the steps of the Hanes Student Commons at Daniels Plaza will begin at 10:30 a.m. with “Green Buildings” and 11:30 a.m. with “Sustainable Investment Strategies,” both from the Piedmont Environmental Alliance; “The Benefits of Urban Trees” at 12:30 p.m., from the N.C. Urban Forest Council, and “NCSA, The Future is Green” at 1:30 p.m. with Jordan Kerner, dean of the NCSA School of Filmmaking.