“Live Green” will serve as the focus for the 25th anniversary of the annual Michiana bioregion celebration for the Earth and Arbor Festival set for exactly one month, Saturday, April 21st, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm at South Bend’s Howard Park along the St. Joseph River.
The celebration will be held outside in the park and inside the shelter. Local artists, ecology clubs, green businesses, green pets, a small animal petting zoo, garden clubs, local high school ecology clubs, and Girl Scouts, who wish to share their knowledge of everything green will be on hand to offer examples, hands-on activities, trees, plants, and a wide variety of exhibits in an effort to give local residents a good idea of how they can be successful in their quest to live green. The Green Pet of the Year will be announced at 9:00 am.
Starting at 10:00 am, City of South Bend Forester, Brent Thompson and the City of South Bend Park employees will plant the Tree City tree. Children will plant flowers around the base after the tree is planted. Proclamations will be read and the many beneficial reasons why we need to plant trees will be shared. Members of the City of South Bend Tree Advisory Council will be on hand to answer any tree related questions.
A special event: “Walk the Dog” family walk will benefit the local organization, PetsConnect! There will be an on-site agility course and obstacle course for dogs hosted by PetsConnect!
Other animal organizations will exhibit during the event.
There will be trees given one per family by local conservation, business, and other groups. Experts will be on hand to answer your tree planting questions.
The first twenty-five children will take home a special edition Earth Day 25th Anniversary garden basket with seeds, diggers, gloves, and other materials needed to plant this spring.
Children will be able to plant and take home a mini-victory garden, made from recycled materials along with bird feeders, art and craft projects, and catnip toys will be made by the children at the ecology activity center. Some of the catnip toys will be given to the homeless cats if the child does not own a cat or kitten.
Visitors may bring a few plants to the plant exchange table. There will be an on-site recycle center to accept old cell phones, old cd’s, small clean glass jars, old wine corks, broken crayons, and pop tabs. Some of the materials will be utilized by 4-H students as they create their recycled art projects this summer.
During the day, live music will be performed by Bryan Edington, Dave’s Mighty Harp Blues Band, Lynn Yaggi and friends, soloist Katie Nettrouer, then the Dani Graff and Ryan Clifford combo.
Solar food cooking will be displayed during the day. Earth Stew will be sold inside the shelter.
Additional artists, ecology clubs, green businesses, garden groups, and others who wish to exhibit may contact the exhibitor organizer for additional information at: (574) 277-7456.
Thanks to Diana Mendelsohn for this information.
