Celebrate Earthday 2010!
Celebrate Earth Day 2010...and Earth Week...by learning how you can make a difference in our environment, in our communities and neighborhoods, and in our homes.
Communities and people all across the world are changing the way we live and think about our world and our environment. They're making a commitment not just to the planet but to their children and future generations by creating better, healthier, cleaner living spaces for themselves and their communities.
Here are some simple and easy activities and ideas from communities just like yours.
Judi Gerber, Master Gardener and blogger at Care2.com, posted this list of ideas to celberate Earth Day while working to help our communities:
- 1. Volunteer with or organize a neighborhood Earth Day Clean Up - Many neighborhood or homeowner’s associations already do this so check with them first. To find one, contact city government offices since they usually keep a list of them. Or, contact your local city or county public works department, as they might already have an Earth Day Neighborhood Cleanup planned. Many agencies also provide free dumpsters to use for the cleanup, and might even deliver and pick them up. If not, they can tell you where to find dumpsters. It is also a good source of information for the kinds of trash to put in the dumpsters, about drop-off locations and any other issues or items you might need to include.
2. Organize or participate in a Household Hazardous Waste Collection - In most communities, there are regular collection days and in some cases, permanent collection sites. Check with your local public works department/agency to see what they have scheduled and for tips on having your own if there’s not one coming up. To find one already planned, Earth 911 is an online resource that lets you search for recycling sites and events in your area. It includes everything from paint to electronics, and features an event search page that you can search by city or zip code.
3. Organize or participate in a Water Cleanup Project at a local beach, stream, or lake - Check with local water agencies, such as the coastal commission or watershed conservation groups, and even your municipal water provider. The Sierra Club has put together a “How To” for organizing your own waterway cleanup. Or, check the list of campaigns and events at the Earth Day 2010 Action Center, like this one in San Diego.
4. Take part in a Tree-Planting event - Check the Arbor Day Foundation site. It lists tree-planting activities by state for Arbor Day (which is April 30). But, the list of conservation and environmental organizations participating in the Arbor Day events can direct you to an event for Earth Day as well. You can also get tips on organizing your own event at the site.
5. Organize a Public Transit Day and/or Ride Your Bike Or Walk Day- This is something you can do on a large or small scale, and there might even be an organized event already planned for your area. Check out the Public Transportation site for some great stats and facts about public transportation and how to use it on Earth Day. Try to encourage your family, friends, and neighbors to join you in using a bike or walking to commute to school or work and to run errands.
6. Organize an Earth Day Recycling Event for children’s old toys and games, and donate them to those in need- Work with your local PTA and other volunteer parent groups and organizations. They can help you get the word out and can help pick up items and drop them off at local schools, shelters, hospitals, preschools, churches, Goodwill, etc. Just be mindful that some organizations do not accept used toys so make sure you check before showing up with boxes of used toys and games. For ideas and information, check the Second Chance Toys web site, which has a link to Earth Day 2010 Toy Drive events coming up along the East Coast.
7. Plant or create a community garden or clean up a community garden - It takes a lot of planning and work to set up a community garden, but you can make Earth Day your official kick-off day. The American Community Garden Association (ACGA) offers a step-by-step guide to starting a community garden. If starting a garden from scratch seems too overwhelming, consider working at a local community garden. The ACGA has a searchable database of community gardens.
8. Hold an ”Unwanted Seedling and Seed Giveaway” at your local farmers’ market or community garden - Contact local garden clubs, community gardeners, and your friends and neighbors who garden and ask them to help you collect and distribute these to your local community. You can make up flyers and publicize at the farmers’ market or community garden ahead of time and can even have a seed or plant exchange as part of the event.
9. Educate Yourself About The Environment - If you aren’t exactly sure what the environmental issues are, or specific ways that you can protect the environment, spend Earth Day educating yourself. Use one of the oldest recycling methods around: go to your local library and check out some books about the environment, and look through its magazine and newspaper collections for environmental stories. Then, after you’ve learned all you can get involved with local groups that work on these issues to help protect the environment.
10. Cook/Host a Special Earth Day Meal using locally or home grown produce - Whatever you do to celebrate Earth Day, a great way to wrap up the festivities is to “break bread” with other people and celebrate the local foods you have available in your region. Not sure what’s local to your area or don’t have your own veggies? Check out http://www.localharvest.org/ or http://www.eatwell.org/.
If you aren't sure which of these ideas suit you or you're not interested in any of them, then check out the EPA's Earth Day website for more information and ideas.And, the Earth Day Network has created the “official” Earth Day 2010 Action Center, which lists campaigns and activities and events in all different categories throughout the United States.
Other ideas that celebrate the Earth as well as families and communities are:
Organize a nieghborhood clean up and curb appeal effort. - Get your neighbors to donate their time and spare plants to clean up the yards and street. Not only will it increase property values, you'll make your neighborhood look better and develop friendships with your neighbors. And last but not least, you'll be helping neighbors who may not be able to create their own curb appeal.
Create a Children's park - Organize and get your city to donate city property for a kids park in your neighborhood where kids can safely play. Donate plants and build playground equipment. Get local businesses involved - they have kids too!
Lobby your city for a downtown "get together" park. - Utilizing an idea similar to the old "town square", get your town to designate or donate a downtown area where people can meet and talk and get to know each other. Get everyone involved to dig, plant and build the park. Make it a community effort with residents and businesses involved. Not only will the park beautify your town which will increase business revenues, it sponsors and promotes a sense of community for which we all seek.
Create a creekside walkway - Organize your community to clear and create a walkway alongside a creek and build creek water holes where families and children can walk, play and picnic so your children can be out in nature to play, learn about nature, and learn to appreciate the earth.
Join Placer Nature Center - Placer Nature Center supports a huge variety of programs and activities for children, adults, and teachers who care about the Earth and our environment as well as the myriad of species who inhabit our great planet.
To learn how you can support the Placer Nature Center, go to our Support page.
For other ideas, check out hese ideas:
The Clinton Foundation has launched an Earth Day initiative this year to support enviromental awareness and education. The Take Initiative campaign includes four elements: an online quiz, information on various aspects of climate change, local events, and an online forum on April 22 in which former President Clinton will answer questions posed by visitors to the Clinton Foundation Web site.
For every person who takes the quiz, $2 will be donated for the purchase of solar flashlights to be distributed to people living in tent camps in Haiti. If 100,000 people take the quiz, the foundation will reach its goal of sending 20,000 solar flashlights to the impoverished country and improving safety conditions in the temporary camps.
At EarthGage, you can search their index of more than 3000 Earth Gauge messages distributed to broadcast meteorologists. Select a region on the map below to browse by geographic location, or select from the list of topics, fact sheets and resources.
Or you can visit the Earth Live website to learn how the planet is doing. It may give you some additional ideas on what you can do to celebrate the planet on which we live.
Figure out your carbon footprint then enter a video contest for the best video showing how that shows how you are reducing your carbon footprint –whether it’s biking, using less water, walking more, etc. We know you can make a difference. Here’s your chance to inspire others.
Carbon footprint calculator: http://eeweek.org/carbon_calculator;
Video Contest: http://www.planet-connect.org/getgreen
And, of course, no Earth Day - or Earth Week - celebration is complete without an outdoor adventure. So take your children to a State Park or hile the trails at Placer Nature Center. Go for a picnic and spend a day outdoors. Oh, and the next time you see a piece of litter along a trail, in a creek, or lying along the edge of the road, stop and pick it up. Put it in backpack so you can dump it in a garbage bin. Mother Nature will love you for it!