Since the birth of the modern environmental movement started in 1970, communities all over the world have come together to celebrate Earth Day. This year, more than one billion people in over 180 countries will showcase the collective power of individuals taking action to celebrate and care for our life supporting planet.
In the Comox Valley, Earth Week 2014 will stretch from the usual one day/one place event to a wide range of events and activities over five days in numerous locations. With the support of its enthusiastic new coordinator, Annie Andrews, Earth Week 2014 is blooming faster than the Spring crocuses eagerly popping up all over the Comox Valley.
Earth Week 2014 Comox Valley will include cycling tours, nature walks, wildlife education, art displays, films, workshops, environmental discussions and much more, throughout numerous indoor and outdoor venues in the Comox Valley! People of all ages will have an opportunity to learn more about caring for, and enjoying our life-sustaining Earth and its ecosystems. A Community Earth Festival will be held on April 26 at Lake Trail School with cycling and gardening demonstrations, kids' activities, local food booths, music, nature education by local groups and businesses and more. The day's activities are water proof as the booths and events can move indoors in case of rain.
Earth Week will kick off to an enthusiastic start April 22 with World Community's 7:30 screening at Upper Filberg Hall of A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet in which filmmaker Mark Kitchell captures the sweeping history of the environmental movement as both a cautionary tale and a celebration of citizens coming together.
Saturday's culminating Earth Festival at Lake Trail School will conclude the week at 4:30 pm in the Lake Trail Theatre with a visionary presentation, Imagining a Green Sustainable Comox Valley, by Guy Dauncey, environmental author and Communications Director of the BC Sustainable Energy Association. Dauncey will lead a discussion on creating and implementing a community vision that includes our well-being, a healthy planet and a sustaining world for our children (and their children).
Between Earth Day and Earth Festival there will be many other opportunities to participate in Earth Week with events like the Wednesday's Wacky Wheely bike rodeo for kids, MARS Walk for Wildlife, Project Watershed's Estuary Ride and the Keep It Living Art show at Comox Valley Art Gallery. Residents are encouraged to make their own celebrations as well, by going for a family walk, organizing a neighbourhood clean-up, planting a garden or taking actions to reduce waste and live more sustainably.
Earth Week Coordinator, Annie Andrews regularly updates the Earth Week calendar on the Transition Town Comox Valley website http://transitiontowncv.org/earthday, for anyone wanting to keep up with the full roster of events. The website includes Earth Week events, and links to register an event in the Earth Week program guide, have an information/ vending booth, or learn about ads and sponsorship opportunities.
In order to make this a community-wide event, organizers of Earth Week want to send a full program guide to all Comox Valley residences. To do this they are looking for sponsorships by business, people, organizations that share in their vision of creating a green, sustaining and sustainable Comox Valley. The great news is there is still room for organizations, people, businesses and governments to get involved with booths, events, workshops.
Can we come together to create a better, more sustainable world? Could the Comox Valley be a leader in new ideas on energy conservation, affordable homes and neighbourhoods, sustainable food and farming? Can we create an economy that puts the well-being of people and environment first ? Could we have a transportation system that gets us where we want to go without paving paradise and generate the energy we need without fracking our future? Yes, we can! See you there, Earth Week 2014 Comox Valley.
For more information visit the Transition Town website, click onto facebook.com/CVEarthDay, call 250-331-9088 or 250-338-0155.
— Transition Town Comox Valley