CREEC

News release

Several area organizations have come together to organize a celebration of Earth Day 2019 on Saturday, April 27. The festival will be located at Bluegrass Community and Technical College, Corporate Drive, Danville. Festival hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

More than 30 environmentally themed exhibits are already confirmed. Exhibitors include Inter-County Energy, Bernheim Forest and Arboretum, Boyle County Conservation District, Community Arts Center, Bluegrass Greensource, Boyle County Farmers Market, Central Kentucky Wildlife Refuge and many more. Two plant nurseries will be on-site selling both vegetable and native perennial plants. Two renewable energy providers will demonstrate their products.

Several exhibitors are offering activities for children. Children can win prizes by participating in an ECO-Bingo game, by visiting exhibits and participating in activities.

A highlight event will be the Upcycling Contest for middle and high school students. Students can win cash prizes for creatively adapting old materials into beautiful and new purposes.  Upcycling is a blend of DIY savvy and environmental sensibility. Upcycling not only turns the unwanted into something useful and attractive, but also reduces waste of valuable materials, and gives participants an outlet for creativity and personal style.

New this year will be a home energy efficiency workshop presented by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. Participants in the “Power House Energy Efficiency Workshop” will learn about reducing their energy bills, options for solar energy and about ways to collectively engage with our utilities and elected officials about energy issues. All participants will receive a kit of home energy-efficiency products valued at $25. Registration is appreciated, but not required. RSVP at http://bit.ly/2V432rF.

Rick Serres will lead a 16-mile bike ride that will leave the Earth Day Festival at BCTC at 3 p.m., follow scenic county byways to the Isaac Shelby Cemetery and return to Taste of Danville at Wilderness Trace Distillery.

Live music will be provided by One More Shot from 12 to 2 p.m. The food vendor Smokey and the Brisket will be on-site for snacks, lunch and drinks.

The first Earth Day celebrations took place in 1970 on 2,000 college and university campuses and hundreds of communities across the United States. Earth Day is now observed in 192 countries, and celebrated by more than a billion people every year. Environmental groups have sought to make Earth Day into a day of action to change human behavior and bring about policy changes. Earth Day is still important because it reminds people to think about environmental threats both local and global and ways to help protect the environment.

“A primary goal of the festival is to encourage both individual and corporate actions to protect our environment,” states Lindsie Nicholas, watershed coordinator for Bluegrass Greensource.

Major sponsors are Clarks Run Environmental Education Corporation, Bluegrass Greensource, and Bluegrass Community and Technical College. The Earth Day Festival is funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Festival is free and open to the public. For further details visit www.clarksrun.info.

Earth Day Festival Schedule

11 a.m. — Festival begins

12-2 p.m. — Live music by One More Shot

12 p.m. — Upcycling contest judging begins

12:30-2 p.m. — Power House energy efficiency workshop

3 p.m. — Bike ride leaves BCTC