BY CARRIE REGENSTREIF
Downtown Market Square will be bustling with environmentally
friendly fun at the Sudbury Earth Day Festival on Saturday,
April 22.
The event runs from 10 am to 4 pm, featuring workshops on
home energy conservation, organic gardening, straw-bale
building design, and counting our food miles.
Kids activities include creating musical instruments from
reused items, an Earth Day mural, water conservation activities
and face painting.
Other highlights of the day include a light bulb exchange, where people can bring an ordinary light bulb and trade it for an energy efficient one!
Plus, there will be a free tree giveaway, but like the bulb
exchange, it's "first-come, first-serve," so get there early.
Earthdancers, Jolie Jugglers, and musical groups Apparatus
and Les Cockrels will perform throughout the day and everyone
is welcome to participate in a drumming workshop, sculpture
making and an enviro-quiz.
More than 40 exhibitors will be selling environmentally
friendly products and showcasing environmental projects,
including vendors selling hemp items, purses made from plastic
bags, reused T-shirts with original screen prints, renewable
energy systems, organic hair and skin care products and much
more.
Alternative forms of transportation will also be featured,
including a Smart Car, a bio-diesel-fuelled vehicle and an
electric bike. Visitors can bring their pedal bikes and get a
free checkup.
A variety of delicious food will be available to tempt the
taste buds, including locally made perogies, Jamaican and
Hispanic food, vegetarian fare, "aboriginal tacos," and
fair-trade coffee.
Draws will be made hourly for lots of great door prizes,
such as gift certificates from Planet Earth Organic
Landscaping, Southview Greenhouse Growers, Casa Mexicana, Body
Shop and Black Cat Too, a composter from the City of Greater
Sudbury's Waste Diversion department, Steel Cosmetics skin care
products and environmentally friendly cleaning products from
Healthy Living.
The event is free to the public thanks to the following generous sponsors: Sudbury Basin Environmental Networking Initiative, Inco Ltd., Nickel District Conservation Authority-Source Water Protection, FedNor, EarthCare Sudbury, Sudbury and District Health Unit, Sudbury Hydro and Hydro One.
Carrie Regenstreif is a member of the Earth Day Festival organizing committee and also co-ordinator of the Junction Creek Stewardship committee.