The City of Sebastian’s Natural Resources Board drew a steady stream of visitors to the 10th annual Earth Day Celebration and Arbor Day Observation at Riverview Park last Saturday. Globally, the Earth Day theme was Environmental & Climate Literacy, with a goal to “build a global citizenry fluent in the concepts of climate change and aware of its unprecedented threat to our planet.”
The all-volunteer Natural Resource Board works with the city to educate the public on ways to protect our fragile environment, and what better way than through a delightful day filled with hands-on demonstrations, earth-friendly vendors and a wealth of children’s activities to encourage them to become more aware of their surroundings.
“We try to deal with ecological problems,” said Rose Glaser, Earth Day coordinator with Ann Lucier. Their meetings, open to everyone, take place at 6 p.m. the first Tuesday of the month at Sebastian City Hall.
Two scavenger hunts encouraged youngsters to glean snippets of information, and fully-completed contest sheets earned a raffle ticket to win a Panama Jack bicycle or a seahorse beaded banner. Questions included everything from how long a gopher tortoise may live and what a Goby is, to who was president when Pelican Island became the country’s first National Wildlife Refuge.
Several activities were standouts as far as the little ones were concerned. Most couldn’t resist crawling through the simulated gopher tortoise burrow, filled with the types of native animals that hide out during a storm or a prescribed burn.
“They crawl in there and they stay, discussing the bugs and the animals,” said Ann Lucier. “I had five of them in there at the same time.”
The Home Depot table was a hubbub of hammering as children, assisted by parents, created sailboats, a Trojan horse bank and a toolbox – the last adorably worn on the arm like a fashionable purse by little Lucy Vitek.
Their artistic side was encouraged with the annual Chalk Art Contest, this year titled Endangered Species of the Treasure Coast, and with the painting of rocks, meant to be hidden for others to find as a way of getting families outside.
Debra Messer, at the Democrats of Indian River booth, creatively showed the destructive global imprint of “One Year, One Shopper, 500 Bags,” by actually wearing 500 bags. “We want to ban single-use plastic bags,” she said. “This is something we’re trying to get Democrats and Republicans to get together on.”
Keep Indian River Beautiful, which is also hoping to get people to clean up their act, gave out supplies to do just that. Earlier in the day they coordinated 250 volunteers across the county, cleaning up beaches, the lagoon and neighborhoods.
And after several turns around the park, attendees sat to relax in the beauty of their surroundings, enjoying lunch and great music from various groups of local musicians.
