ERIN – Earth Day will be celebrated at the Legion here on April 22, with a garbage clean up, volunteer barbecue, and community event with special guests including a pony, mermaid, and a local choir.
Collecting garbage “is a good way to bring the community together, clean up the town for the next season, and bring the family together to do something that helps the planet,” said Abel Page, chair of the Town of Erin’s Environment and Sustainability Advisory Committee, which is organizing the event.
The garbage clean up is from 10am to 12pm.
Volunteers will meet at the back of the Legion to pick up gloves and garbage bags, and then spread all over Erin to pick up trash.
“There is garbage everywhere, especially coming out of the winter,” Page said.
“They can bring back garbage to the Legion, where we will have the bin.”
Volunteers will be rewarded for their efforts with a barbecue lunch at 12pm and the chance to win prizes in a raffle.
Page said a number of partners came together to offer “some very cool prizes for the volunteers.”
He is hoping to get as good a turn out as last year, when “maybe 100 people” showed up to help out.
After the garbage clean up and barbecue, there will be over 20 local vendors set up at the Legion, including a geothermal advisory company, a solar energy provider, people working on “gardening solutions and rainwater harvesting,” and local environmental organizations, Page said.
“We really tried to assemble a mix of environmental awareness and green living,” he noted, and “some of the vendors are doing crafts for the kids.”
There will also be a pony outside, and a mermaid named Jacy who Page said is an “ambassador for the ocean.”
A local choir will be there too, to “sing some Earth Day songs,” Page said.
Additionally, 200 pine trees will be distributed for free, which the environment and sustainability committee ordered from the county’s Green Legacy Program.
Planting trees is important because “trees are a great way to increase biodiversity, to put back carbon in the ground, and they’re also helpful if you want to create some windbreaks or things like that,” Page said.
“As the saying goes, ‘the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the next best time is today.’”
He added, “it’s pretty satisfying to plant a tree and see it grow.”
Meanwhile, at Erin Public School on Earth Day, there will be a paper shredding event from 8:30am to 12pm.
People can bring their old documents to be shredded for $5 per banker’s box (cash only).
“That’s a cool initiative as well,” Page said.
