Earth Day Festival Swells—

Twice As Many Get The Message: Go Green

By Kendra Bobowick

Lemonade or iced tea? Maybe a cookie?

Swirling ice cubes and lemonade in a large white pitcher, Henry Vaughan and Jack Buchler mixed iced drinks and sold sweets at their stand Saturday, April 25. Set up in a patch of shade this weekend in front of Newtown Middle School, the boys were at the center of Newtown’s second Earth Day festival — a celebration that more than doubled in both participants and guests compared to last year.

Turning a full circle from the center of the lawn, the panorama of environmental reminders began on the school steps where musicians splashed notes and lyrics into the air. An environmental maze designed by Baxter Hankin — a student who started an environmental club at Reed Intermediate School — took participants through a bamboo jungle. Blocking the way were lengths of twine if maze-goers took a wrong turn; success depended on the correct answers to questions. Baxter has additional aspirations. His school club plans to write to President Obama. “We want to tell him the country needs to help the environment,” he said. One door down, Eli Holmes and Matt Krasnickas took care of the Holmes Fine Gardens booth, laughing, and tipping backward in their chairs.

A few feet away groups stopped periodically to look at the engine of GM’s new hydrogen car, set up beside a display for the Newtown Forest Association. In all, filling the school lawn were booths and representatives for more than 40 local businesses and groups, including gardening centers, yoga instruction, chiropractics, health and nutrition specialists, Girl Scouts, conservation enthusiasts, woodworkers, farmers, school clubs, and more.

Amid educational displays and information booths were children — hands sticky with arts and crafts projects. Hovering over bins of suet and birdseed and with pinecones in hand, Maddie Steites and Anna and Olivia Steare either laughed or made faces at the seeds stuck between their fingers. The three tried to keep clean (unsuccessfully) while using plastic utensils to smear the seed onto a pinecone. Behind them, woodcrafter Mike Agius had some of his handcrafted wooden bowls on display, along with small burlap wraps protecting young plant roots. The plants came from Shortt’s Farm & Garden Center in Sandy Hook.

In one corner were Newtown High School students and Ecology Club members Zoe Rabinowitz and Jane Ellen Anderson. Have you ever seen the recycle bins next to copy machines, they asked? The girls emptied the bins and put together note pads using the blank sides of discarded copies. Their hard work, in part, has also brought recycling to the classroom. With recycling as a large part of their message, the club recently finished Earth Week programs. To their right were Girl Scouts Sophia and Julia Rhyins with another similar reminder to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Across from the girls was resident Nina Stout, who offered advice about eating in season. Does your fruit and produce have to travel, or is it grown within the region? She spun a globe pointing to the East Coast. Do you know where your food came from?

Outside her tent were “princesses” Eva Askew and Katherine Bates, both adorned with crowns of intertwined flowers they made that day. Making a game out of an exercise ball as they rolled, flopped, and fell on the lawn were friends Kelly Terifay and Lucy Schumann.

Coming back around toward the musicians, past the Conservation Commission booth, was an ongoing performance by The Graceful Planet. The day celebrated nature, clean and healthy living, and preparing for a better future.