Earth Day Festival

Is Saturday

By Kendra Bobowick

Visit NewtownEarthDay.org for a list of events taking place at the Third Annual Earth Day Festival between 10 am and 4 pm on April 24 at the Newtown Middle School. Learn about the environment, resources in the community, ongoing green efforts, and ways to help.

Get involved; the site asks for volunteers from early morning setup to closing breakdown. Do you have an interest in helping coordinate vendors, maintain the performance schedule, or doing some lifting and booth preparations? Contact Sondra Bradford-Jennings, volunteer coordinator, at sondrabj@sloaneco.com, or 203-775-9559.

The day’s events will include:

Lose the Litter — 9 am to 1 pm with the Newtown Lions Club, which will lead a cleanup.

The Environmental Maze — All day on the front lawn, providing a fun opportunity for kids of all ages to learn about the environment.

Bring Your Bill — Stop by the Sustainable Energy Commission’s booth and learn how to save money on your electric bill by signing up for clean energy.

Also, visit with the Conservation Commission and learn about open space properties and the efforts locally to preserve Newtown’s natural resources.

Throughout the day see performances from local singers, songwriters, and musicians, enjoy demonstrations on fitness and yoga instruction, learn how to build a rain barrel, and end the day with an Earth Day Hootenanny at My Place Restaurant.

More than 50 local businesses, clubs, and organizations will be represented at the festival including the Fitness Loft, which will issue a fitness challenge, the Graceful Planet, and Taunton Press. Underwriters are the Taunton Press, Iroquois Gas, Housatonic Valley Waldorf School, Merrell, and Alteris Renewable Energy.

Going Green At Hawley

Don’t throw away that banana peel!

The environmental-minded Go Green Hawley students at Hawley School could use it in their environmental awareness efforts, which include composting.

“We have a check list of the ways to save the environment,” said co-chair for the PTA-sponsored Go Green Hawley — an ongoing initiative at the school to boost students’ environmental stewardship.

“The kids are so full of energy, and here they can be acknowledged for their efforts,” she added. Through the Go Green program offered to kindergarten through grade four students with roughly 50 participants so far, they can check off items from a list each month, and the school will note their progress.

Referring to the list in her house, Ms Wolfman said, “We keep ours on the fridge.” Did her children do something green? They check off a box. Like her family, she said, “So many are interested in doing what they can day to day.” Go Green is an independent program designed to promote green-mindedness, Ms Wolfman explained. “It’s all about how every individual can make a difference.” The categories students can choose from are conserving energy, resources, reduce, reuse, recycle, educate yourself, green your community. Composting is not the program’s main focus, but students can compost at home and get credit.

 At school, however, the composting for third and fourth graders is something new. Also a co-chair for Go Green and a gardener, Marie Armstrong, worked with Hawley staff Go Green faculty advisor Deb Cowden and “came up with a plan” for composting. Ms Wolfman said, “They started small, with little two-gallon pails and labels of what can go in the bucket.” In participating classes are buckets with sealing lids. Each Wednesday the classes walk out to the composter, the Earth Maker unit behind the school. They add to it weekly, and the “very curious are waiting to see what [the contents] look like when they go in the garden. They have lots of questions!” she said.

They may use the compost in a children’s garden at the school, “or to plant seedlings,” Ms Wolfman said.

Hawley’s math and science specialist, Ms Cowden is also a contributing author to the monthly environmental e-newsletter, Go Green! Gazette. Hawley Principal Jo-Ann Peters is also supportive, Ms Wolfman said. Links to the gazettes are at www.newtown.k12.ct.us/has/page.php?pid=453.

The Go Green Gazette

The April 2010 Go Green Gazette proclaims, “Earth Day, every day!” The opening paragraph asks, “Are you celebrating Earth Day?” The answer for the Go Green group is, Yes. The group will have a booth set up at the middle school and portions of the day’s proceeds will go to Men In Green, a group of middle school students that will be promoting an effort to “reforest” the earth. See the schedule for the weekend’s Earth Day Festival at Newtown Middle School. (See Below)

Themes for April’s gazette include “use less water,” “save electricity,” “use chemicals safely,” “spread the word.”

The gazette includes word-searches, letters, web links to earth-friendly sites, and a history of Earth Day.