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Lafayette residents can celebrate the planet this weekend as the grassroots non-profit organization Sustainable Lafayette, along with the City of Lafayette and the Chamber of Commerce, are holding their 11th annual family-friendly Earth Day Festival and Celebration of Sustainability on Sunday, April 24.
The event will include music, entertainment and yummy “green” food options. This year’s Act Local theme will feature activities and exhibitors to inspire making small changes in daily decisions that can have a huge long-term impact.
Getting the ball, or rather, wheel rolling will be the Safe Moves Bike Rodeo from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at Stanley Middle School. Cyclists can practice and develop skills to avoid crashes in a fun, non-competitive atmosphere.
Starting at 11 a.m., just up the path from Stanley, on Golden Gate Way behind the Library, will be a bevy of volunteers demonstrating numerous ways to act locally and more sustainably – including showing a mini-farm in a parking space to highlight how to grow produce in a tight spot. Fresh eggs are a step closer with valuable advice on raising chickens from a Lafayette Community Garden representative.
Parents can keep old, beat-up crayons out of landfills by dropping them off at the Festival’s Crayon Initiative station, where they will be recycled. Because crayons are simply colored wax, they aren’t biodegradable, so a local entrepreneur started this non-profit to turn trash to treasure by collecting unwanted or broken crayons, melting them down to form new crayons which are provided to schools and hospitals including the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.
This will also be ground zero to learn about how to preserve local open space, reduce food waste with White Pony Express, and understand the benefits of choosing renewable energy for your home with MCE. Representatives from Republic Services will also be on hand for those that want to request a larger recycling or compost bin.
Finally, there will be two guided creek walks with Lafayette Creeks Committee members at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. that start from the committee’s booth at the festival. Each tour will be about an hour long, and will include visits to several sites for potential creekside enhancements. (See related story, below.)
The Earth Day Festival runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Golden Gate Way, just behind the Lafayette Library and Learning Center.
Just days before the Earth Day Festival, local law firm Hunsucker Goodstein PC is hosting its annual Lafayette Reservoir Earth Day lunch-hour clean-up from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, April 22. They will provide everything you need to tidy up the Reservoir — gloves, garbage buckets, litter sticks and vests, along with a complimentary lunch provided by Byron Park before the clean-up. Everyone is invited to join HG along with the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce Green Committee. Meet at the Reservoir Visitor’s Center.
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