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Hug Your Mother—Logan joins international Earth Day celebrations

April 21st, 2013 Posted in Arts and Life

By Jessica Sonderegger

LOGAN—The third week in April traditionally presents a parallel of deadlines and celebrations. Where Cache Valley residents were expected to complete the legal requirements of Tax Day, April 15th, they also celebrate the planet Earth the following Monday. Though participation in the latter is less of a legal obligation, there will definitely be more ways to engage in the festivities of Earth Day today than by waiting endlessly for a postal stamp kiosk.

earthday_wallpapers_quotes_images_gogreen_environmental(www.fun-gall.blogspot.com)_07In fact, efforts to provide an annual, local, well-rounded celebration of this international holiday, first celebrated in 1970, have been three years in the making. And coordinators are saying it’s getting better every year.

“When you know something is good,” said Cache Valley Center for the Arts (CVCA) Program Director Amanda Castillo, “you want to do your part to make it better.”

“It’s just grown,” said Stoke’s Nature Center’s Director of Education Andrea Liberatore, “year after year after year.”

In collaboration with Logan City and Stokes Nature Center, the CVCA hosted the third annual Earth Day Downtown Street Festival last Saturday, in anticipation of Earth Day on Monday.

“This is a celebration of our local life in Cache Valley,” Castillo said, explaining that she and her committee are attempting to build a bridge between the arts and the environment. “We want to encourage people to find out what’s available in their communities,” and provide an opportunity of education and involvement.

An annual tradition that began in 2011, the street festival progressed from an “after-work thing” to an all-day event featuring local groups, organizations, vendors and clubs. “It has taken on a life of its own,” Castillo said.

She explained that this year’s street festival introduced the Thatcher Mansion Porch Speaker Series, an event created to invite specialists to educate the public on various skills, habits, practices and resources. Speakers covered an assortment of topics, from bike safety to organic farms.

“I’m really excited that we’ve added more public education,” said Logan City Conservation Coordinator Emily Malik—something that Castillo and Liberatore also were enthusiastic about.

The educational aspect is “going to be a great addition to what we’re already going,” Liberatore said, explaining that the festival will continue to develop because of this element. “Having some sort of educational format . . . will help us grow.”

Liberatore oversaw the Stoke Nature Center’s booth, assisting kids in making bookmarks from nature-made stamps, while Malik directed a recycling booth to talk about Logan’s expanded recycling efforts, including the recently established glass recycling drop sites.

“If we don’t celebrate those things”—glass recycling—Castillo said, “they’ll go away.”

TP

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