By Rose Laudicina
Staff Writer
Although Earth Day is still 10 days away, you don’t have to wait until April 22 to celebrate in our community.
Throughout the whole month of April, there are plenty of events to draw you outdoors to celebrate the earth all around town.
This year marks the 32nd annual Earth Day, with the first held April 22, 1970. Born out of an era of protests and demonstrations, Earth Day was created to promote a sustainable environment and generate action for the protection of the environment.
Every year since Earth Day has been celebrated across the country on April 22, with each community putting its own local environmental spin on its Earth Day celebration.
Around Orange County there will be multiple ways to celebrate, from festivals to 5Ks to informational events where you can get educated on recycling, composting and other ways to be environmentally friendly. Regardless of age or interest, there is a celebration to satisfy every sort of environmentalist.
This weekend, on Saturday, April 14, the Town of Chapel Hill will host its Earth Action Day Festival at Southern Community Park from noon to 5 p.m. The free festival will feature live earth-themed entertainment, a “green†scavenger hunt, s’mores made using solar power and many more interactive and educational activities.
For the running enthused, there will be a 5K and a one-mile family fun run at 10 a.m. at the park before the festival, and a prize will be given for the best sustainability-themed costume. The run will cost $30 for a single participant and $70 for families of three or more, with the proceeds going toward Bike Night, the Dental Mission Trip to Honduras and the East Chapel Hill Rotary Club’s Teacher Supply Store.
Chapel Hill Transit will provide a free shuttle to the festival from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. departing every half-hour from Eastgate, with stops at University Mall, Varsity Theatre/Carolina Coffee Shop and the State Employees’ Credit Union on Pittsboro Street.
Those headed to the ever-popular Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival next weekend, April 19-22 – which happens to be Earth Day weekend – are in luck because the festival will offer plenty of opportunities to celebrate the earth.
At Shakori, Earth Day enthusiasts can choose from nature walks, film screenings, roundtable discussions and gardening workshops to commemorate this year’s Earth Day.
However, if seasonal allergies prove to be too prohibitive to allow the enjoyment of an outdoor Earth Day celebration, locals can find relief indoors at a free film screening of What a Way To Go: Life At The End of Empire.
To be shown at the Carrboro Century Center on Sunday, April 15, at 4:45 p.m., the movie touches on environmental events like climate change and resource crises and was directed by former Carrboroite Sally Erickson.
For those who simply find themselves too busy to take part in any of these Earth Day events, there are even more simple ways to celebrate, such as by getting a haircut.
During the month of April and May to celebrate Earth Month, the Aveda Institute of Chapel Hill is attempting to raise $25,000 for the Triangle Land Conservancy’s (TLC) Clean Water Campaign and will be donating any tips received to TLC.
So no matter what way you choose to do, make sure to take time to say thank you to the earth this April.
This is the 42nd anniversary of Earth Day, then, not the 32nd.