Earth Day Activities Near You
By Charlotte Persons
The first Earth Day was held in 1970 in protest of environmental problems throughout the U.S. Senator Nelson Gaylord organized the event to get those concerns onto the legislative agenda, and 20 million people (10% of the U.S. population) marched in various U.S. cities and towns. As a result, the federal government passed bills that we still rely on today – the Environmental Protection Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act.
Today on Earth Day about 1 billion people world-wide participate in activities to honor and restore our planet. Here is a sampling of free events in our region:
Washington – Statewide
Saturday, April 22 Free Day at Washington State Parks. Enjoy taking friends and family to your favorite state park without a Discover Pass.
Mason County
Friday, April 21, 10:00–2:00 Stewardship Party at Shelton’s Manke-Goldsborough Preserve. Sponsored by Capitol Land Trust and the City of Shelton, volunteers will remove invasive plants to help previous native tree plantings to thrive. Email Melissa@nullcapitollandtrust.org for details about volunteer waivers, etc.
Lewis County
April 21, Friday, 1:00–5:00 Earth Day Celebration. Live music, plant sale, mini-goat, etc. Nature Nurture Farmacy, 176 NE School St., Chehalis, WA. Go to https://www.naturenurturefarmacy.org/events to register and get your tickets.
April 22, Saturday, 10:00–2:00 Earth Day Community Cleanup for Downtown Chehalis. Get garbage bags at Lewis County Historical Museum, 599 NW Front St., Chehalis. Volunteers, please call 360-345-1738 to register. Get a free T-shirt if you register by April 10! Volunteers who return bags of trash to the museum site during the event will get raffle tickets! More info at https://experiencechehalis.com/event-location/lewis-county-historical-museum/
Thurston County
Saturday, April 22 Earth Day 2023 Volunteer Event and Student Challenge. The PARC Foundation, Lions Club, and city parks departments invite schools to recruit volunteers to clean up parks in Olympia, Tumwater, Lacey, and Tenino. $700 in prize money. For details, see https://www.parcfoundation.org/earthday
Note: Black Hills Audubon Society will be one of the community groups with an information booth and kids’ art project from 11:00–1:00 at Tenino City Park at the conclusion (and free lunch) of this event in Tenino. Contact me at cpeople2u@nullgmail.com if you would like to volunteer.
Saturday, April 22 Earth Day Market Ride, Olympia. Sponsored by Intercity Transit, bike riders will start in neighborhood locations and converge on Heritage Park at about 10:45 a.m. From there riders will go to the Community Market. Free coffee and treats. Helmets and leaders provided. Waivers required. More info at https://bcc.intercitytransit.com/events/2023-4-22
Sunday, April 23, 1:00–2:00 Earth Day Service, Olympia.Sponsored by Interfaith Works and Friends of Trees. Celebrate the love of our planet through songs, poems, walks, and sharing. All faiths and the non-faithful are invited. Decatur Woods Park, 1015 Decatur St. SW, Olympia. If you have questions, contact me at cpeople2u@nullgmail.com
Friday, April 28, 8:30 p.m. Luminary Procession, Olympia. Though technically this is not part of Earth Day, this is such good news! After three years’ absence due to the pandemic, the Procession of the Species will have an evening event, part of the activities for the Spring Art Walk. For more details see http://www.procession.org/
Photo credit: TheOriginalSoni, via NASA Earth America 2010. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Earth_Day_-_Earth_from_Space.jpg
