Earth Day Celebrations

By Shannon B.
VISTA at GreenHouse17

Earth Day is my favorite holiday. Forget presents at Christmas and getting stuffed on Thanksgiving. That is nothing compared to celebrating this giant rock that sustains us and taking a moment to share the importance of being mindful every single day. Earth Day has all the perks of other holidays such as connecting with others within our community, good food and a jovial atmosphere; but it is so much more! Earth Day has sunshine (or life giving rain) and spring veggies. It has grass stains on our knees and dirt under our fingernails.

It was a privilege to be able to celebrate  Earth Day at GreenHouse17 this year. I had so much fun planning the activities that we ended up having a three day party!

I awoke on Earth Day to clouds and a 100% chance of rain. That did nothing to dampen the spirit of the day. I had planned for a rainy day and we had all the fixins for a Lorax Party. We had the book, the movie and plenty of Lorax themed snacks. Adults and children alike enjoyed the story of the Lorax and a discussion of how the choices we make impact our Earth and those we share it with.

The next day brought sunshine and the perfect opportunity to paint our new rain barrel. Everyone was quite taken with the story of the Lorax and thought that our rain barrel should commemorate the lessons learned the previous day. I have many talents in areas of growing, cooking and preserving food, but I cannot draw to save my life. Thankfully there was one within our community that possesses that talent. She sketched out our Lorax surrounded by his beloved truffula trees and as a community we came together to paint our scene. Our Truffula tree tops are made from the children’s hand prints. It was a wonderful experience. Our rain barrel is something that everyone who participated is proud of.

Friday was the event everyone was looking forward to. We were making tie-dyed shirts. I love using natural dyes. I use them as food coloring and fabric dye. For the shirts we used coffee, beets, grape juice and tumeric as our dyes. We had a huge drop cloth and everyone worked together to make our wearable art. A good time was had by all.