 | | | Last year's celebration at Lafayette Plaza Park Photo Doug Kohen
| | | | | | Sustainable Lafayette is bringing the Lamorinda community into a worldly event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, April 22 that, according to earthday2012.org will mobilize one billion people. In Lafayette, about 1,000 are expected to participate, celebrate the existing sustainability work done locally, enjoy the music, the fun, the food, and get inspired to do more. The location has slid east slightly and will be centered at the Library and Learning Center, to accommodate more activities and promote more interaction.
"In previous years we had the Earth Day festival at Stanley Middle School, Plaza Park, and also split between the Plaza Park and the library," says Sustainable Lafayette organizer Michael Dawson. "This year we decided to take advantage of the library's great facilities, including the outdoor amphitheater plaza and Golden Gate Way (which will be closed during the event). And the library makes it an even better event because they're bringing some of their consortium partners and will be opening up the community hall for the rain-harvesting lecture and movies. They've been helping plan the event from the beginning."
Water conservation will be in focus this year. A grey-water-capturing and rain-harvesting lecture will be held in the Community Hall, and related movies will be shown. The Interactive Kids Center will feature the Lawrence Hall of Science and Lindsay Wildlife Museum and will also have lots of fun crafts. And the Bike Parade from Stanley Middle School will have a bike decorating contest for the first time. Nanette Heffernan, who's leading the bike parade, is also giving away free Chinook Books to every participant.
"This year we'll also have more non-profits and related organizations like The Urban Farmers, Kiefer Koops, Moraga Gardens (selling veggie starters), etcetera," added Dawson. "Near and dear to our hearts will be the displays of all 2012 projects from Sustainable Lafayette. We're excited to show our work around the Lafayette Community Gardens, GoLafayette.org, Lafayette Recycles, and the Green Schools. We didn't intentionally plan a more educational Earth Day Celebration - there are just so many projects and organizations to talk about!"
At the same time, Sustainable Lafayette focused on making this a fun, celebratory event. The Lafayette Chamber is sponsoring music by the Gypsy Chix and the Dream Posse, and they've worked with local vendors to offer the best food options. "We will offer a greater variety of fresh, organic food by bringing in different food vendors (Fist of Flour, Whole Foods, Nature's Bounty, and Bookmark Cafe)," says Dawson. "This year we'll have a hot pizza oven and even more great choices than last year."
For a detailed program, visit sustainablelafayette.org.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA