Photos by ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Hailey Vandergrift, 2, runs and tries to get a kite airborne Saturday while participating in Hollins University's International Day of Climate Action event.

Amanda McGee, a Hollins University student, participates in International Day of Climate Action. Only 45 people signed up to participate on campus.

The plan in Albuquerque, N.M., was for 350 people to bang 350 gongs.

In Nashville, Tenn., volunteers hoped to distribute 350 shovels of organic compost to urban gardens.

And 350 residents of Boise, Idaho, were scheduled to have their pictures taken for a collage while standing on the banks of the state's Sawtooth Lake.

These and many other number-themed environmental events were slated to occur in more than 1,000 communities around the world Saturday, including the Roanoke and New River valleys, according to the Web site 350.org, a movement that seeks to raise environmental awareness. The organization assembled the events for this weekend as part of its International Day of Climate Action.

The "350" theme stems from climatologist James Hansen's studies regarding effects that occur when the carbon level in Earth's atmosphere exceeds 350 parts per million. Hansen, who heads NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said the atmospheric carbon level currently sits at about 390 parts per million.

Around Roanoke, events were held at Grandin Gardens and at the Reserve Avenue athletic fields, where crowds of people formed the titular number, a sight shot by an elevated camera. That photo and pictures from all events held are slated to be posted on the 350.org Web site.

Volunteers in Blacksburg collected pieces of recycling and painted handprints on a piece of fabric at their rallies.

At Hollins University, an effort was made to try to fly 350 kites from a hill overlooking campus.

"It started as a joke on Facebook," said Rosalie Kell, who is a student and the school's recycling coordinator and a co-chairwoman for the group Students for Environmental Action. She proposed the idea of launching hundreds of kites.

"I was rabble-rousing, trying to get students engaged," she admitted. "The next day I had a call from the [university] president's office and they said, 'The kite idea was really good. Can you do it?' "

The hundreds she hoped for, however, did not materialize. In the end, 45 guests signed the event list and only about a dozen of the constructs were in the air at the same time, but those who showed up didn't seem to mind.

"Our daughter went to Hollins and helped start Students for Environmental Action," said Mary Geres of Salem, who came with two kites and her husband, Mike. She said her daughter, Sara, graduated two years ago and is now with the Peace Corps and working in Vanuatu, a South Pacific island nation.

"They had an earthquake last week. I lost a night's sleep, but she was fine. We're going to go give her the pictures from today. She'll like to see the group she started is still going."

Harold Graybeal of Roanoke brought two kites, one of which looked like a military helicopter, and he wore a camouflage shirt and hat "to support our troops," he said.

"I collect kites more than fly them. I'm no expert at all," he explained as he attempted to get a long-tailed Chinese dragon kite to lift off. "I think the key to this is patience."

Roy Berry, 12, of Blacksburg, came with his aunt and managed to get his kite so high into the air that he reached the end of the more than 100 feet of the fishing line he used as a tether.

"It's pretty simple," he said, about 20 minutes into the flight. "When it goes to the left, you have to run to the right. When it starts to go down, you move backwards."

The spectacle of the kites attracted attention from another group -- buzzards. For the first half-hour of the event, dozens of the birds circled above, watching the small aircraft before they lost interest and moved on.

On her way to another 350-themed event, Kell said she didn't mind that her overall goal wasn't met.

"We're just trying to raise awareness. That's the main thing," she declared.