The Earth Day Community Celebration held on April 20th was a great event. We had over 30 people participating in helping to prepare for and host the event, plus at least 5 community representatives that made presentations or hosted resource tables.

We started the Celebration with a bike parade from the High School to the church and a Blessing of the Bikes. The Worship Service was “paperless,” and we took a pledge not to use polystyrene at church – it’s mugs from now on! The children’s activities were a highlight of the day with children’s green computer games, crafts in which children decorated recycling boxes and planted seeds and a demonstration on how to build an indoor composting worm bin. Frank was relentless in enlisting people to sign letters in support of green legislation and got over 150 letters signed! The event brought in a number of outside folks that saw the signs or heard about the event from one source or another. We ended with the drawing for great door prizes.

One idea for next year is that we might collaborate with other congregations and groups in the community and have a “progressive” Earth Day celebration in which participants walk, bike or carpool from one site to the next! We are limited only by our imaginations!