Earth Week activities announced

SANDPOINT — In celebration of Earth Day, local organizations are partnering up for a full week of events this year.

Events throughout the week will lead up to the big Earth Day celebration at Farmin Park on Saturday, April 20, where sixth-graders from Washington Elementary will talk to the crowd about recycling.

“They are, of course, our keynote speakers,” Nancy Gerth with 350Sandpoint said of the students. “I am really excited about that.”

Local sponsors partnering up for the Earth Day celebration are 350Sandpoint, the East Bonner County Library District, Panhandle Alliance for Education, Bonner County Human Rights Task Force, the Festival at Sandpoint, Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper and Washington Elementary.

The Washington Elementary students in Ann Dickinson’s sixth-grade Design for Change elective took on the project of recycling this year, with a focus on plastic, implementing a recycling program at their school. The DFC kids planned and held an assembly at the school as the recycling program got underway in order to educate their classmates about what it is, how it works and why it is important.

“They really want to educate people about the alternatives to disposable plastics, so that is what they are hoping to do at the Earth Day celebration,” Dickinson said.

The first- and second-grade students also have projects in the community and will be in attendance at the event.

“So we are going to have a lot of kids there, and we decided to have a lot of things for kids to do,” Gerth said.

There will be a number of family-friendly activities, she said, such as painting shopping bags, painting faces, a vision board and more. About 25 organizations have been invited to participate in the event, Gerth said, and in addition to their table where the groups will hand out information, they have been asked to some sort of activity for children. The Friends of the Scotchman Peaks Wilderness will have skulls and skins from mammals of North Idaho, teaching people how to identify them and talking about their environments.

Also, Gerth said, the “green team” from the Festival will be on hand for recycling, there will be “green” food vendors, as well as live music and other entertainment.

One thing the people at 350Sandpoint have learned over the past couple years, Gerth said, is it is “really important” for every organization, no matter what their goals are, to take part in community events such as the Earth Day celebration.

“What has really energized me is that everybody in the community is working for all of these different things now, and it is starting to create a different kind of community here I think ... it’s been exciting,” Gerth said.

In the week leading up to the Earth Day celebration, the library and Kaniksu Land Trust will have Earth Week-friendly books at the StoryWalks at Dover Bay and McNearney Park, including “On Meadowview Street” by Henry Cole and “Wake Up!” by Helen Frost. Climate change posters created by SHS students will be displayed at the library throughout the week as well.

Beginning on Tuesday, April 16, the library will host a variety of speakers, activities and films each day. Some of the events include speakers on climate change, short films on climate change, lessons on insects and animals that pollinate, and crafting pollinator habitats.

From 3-5 p.m. on Earth Day, April 22, local youth from the library’s teen program will head outside to clean up Division Street. All students in grades seven through 12 are welcome to help, and refreshments will be served after the cleanup.

A full schedule of local Earth Week events is available at bit.ly/2WLpQcQ.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.